Tera
by Starysky205
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Connor didn't skip class in order to get high; he actually didn't smoke at all, but he guessed the smell of ash that clung to him could confuse anyone that got close enough. If anyone found out though... he can't run that risk; of course, someone does.
1. Πρόλογος

I had a long vivid dream about this story, where I actually saw the characters going through it like I was watching a show; my mind is a wondrous thing, really.

Also, chocolate covered coffee beans are a real thing, and they smell and taste really bittersweet, and I like, assigned this word to Connor Murphy's entire character, so…

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1\. Πρόλογος

Everyone could shift, the wide majority of the world's population shifted into wolves, some shifted into smaller animals, but generally canines; there was the odd feline every once in a while, but it was rare; dragons were rarer.

Dragons weren't rare for the reason felines were rare, a case of growing in just the right conditions, they were rare because people who could shift into them had been born with the ability. See, most humans weren't able to shift until a certain age, but dragons were different because of how they were born, wolves and humans were both mammals, dragons were rare because they were dangerous.

Evan tried not to think about the countless of tales about the dangers of dragons, or how hunting them down had been justified, or about the fact that it still was; but it wasn't, because dragons weren't actually dangerous, or they were but not all the time, because they were still people in their core, even if they possessed the abilities of giant flying lizards capable of spitting destructive substances. Evan, for example, could breathe a weird sort of acidic mist that could melt metal but did nothing to plants, mainly because he was a forest dragon, yeah, Evan was a dragon, the details of it were head-ache inducing, and really, being able to shift into a dragon only added to the list of reasons why Evan was an outcast.

Ok, so, nobody actually knew about him being a dragon other than his mom, and probably his dad too, but it was included in the list because Evan couldn't tell anyone, unless he was looking to give his life an extremely painful end. Because he knew that the only real reason dragons weren't hunted anymore was that there weren't any of them left to hunt, and if there were, they all learned to hide themselves.

So Evan kept his head low, pretends like there's a different reason why he doesn't shift in front of others, why no one knows his animal; he can't pretend he doesn't have one, so he tells Jared he's a fox and doesn't want people to think badly of him for it, it's a solid pick because being that small was a problem for an omega such as Evan, considering no alpha would want to be with someone who couldn't carry their pups due to size. Jared made fun of Evan, loudly as per usual, which meant people heard and the fact that Evan was a fox spread out; people stopped looking at him weird for not shifting, there was no point to it when the animal was that small.

.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Connor was somewhat lucky, lucky that his mom had known how to hide his true nature from the rest of the family, lucky that slit pupils were easily mistakable for cat eyes, lucky that he got a shape shifting dragon out of all the kinds.

Back when he was a kid he just shifted to match his mom, who turned into a leopard, and actually believed that was his animal, and since Larry and Zoe were both tigers, he didn't have a reason not to believe it. The only reason he found out was because he got lost in the orchard once, and in a panic, shifted into a bird to get out of the trees; he was lucky Cynthia was the one to find him and calm him down into being human, but his mom couldn't keep the ruse after that.

Shape shifting dragons could breathe anything other dragons could, so Connor found himself going to the orchard after it closed down to practice; that's how he found her.

Maybe it was a dragon thing, a survival method ingrained into them after being hunted for so long, being able to find others like you, and feeling responsible for them. Her mom had left a note, in case she couldn't come back in time, that her name was Tera, and that she had used extra caution to make sure only dragons could find her.

Connor knew the make-shift nest was well hidden, because he had been coming back here for a year now. The first month the nest had smelt like ash and grilled meat, nowadays it smelled like ash and Connor, like chocolate covered coffee beans, which kept animals away; and was hidden so you wouldn't see it unless you knew it was there, or had the ability to fly at just the right height.

Technically, the flight thing meant birds could see it, but Tera liked to shift into her dragon form and hunt them; Connor had no idea how to lie about taking baby food to an abandoned orchard, but he could teach the pup how to get her own food without running into danger.

He'll admit he's grown fond of Tera, the little girl is charming as hell, she's a fire drake, which explains why she reeks of ash, and probably a future alpha given how strong her scent was. He'd do anything to keep her safe, that included keeping her a secret until she was old enough to control her shifting; she wouldn't be able to do what Connor did, but there were other ways to hide something.

The only problem was that Connor couldn't always calm her down, as he lacked the experience, or the instincts, he once read omegas could easily soothe any baby because of their nature, but Connor was an alpha. Still, being unable to ask for help in fear that she would be taken because of her status as a dragon; Connor did what he could.


	2. Συναντώ

This is a fast paced plot, but I still could make it slow burn on the pairing area if the story calls for it; at this point, I can't say for sure.

I read a very angst heavy fic and then wrote this down, so,,, there's that.

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2\. Συναντώ

There's something bittersweet about trees that wasn't there before, a dulled dread, a short flash of adrenaline, a vicious voice flaring up until Evan's ears are ringing to the beat of his heart, an odd sense of vertigo even though he's firmly planted to the ground; before trees were peace, they were an escape, a different perspective, and now… now Evan has the physical representation of the weight of his decisions in the form of pristine plaster hugging his left forearm.

Evan's inner dragon loved treetops, loved the way the sun felt as it felt on his scales, shattered by the cushion of leaves, loved the feeling of bark against his cold body. Because he was part human and fed on human food, he didn't actually have the need to hunt, which meant that critters would eventually approach him if Evan stayed in the trees for long enough. It doesn't make as much sense for his fake form, which means animalistic instincts remain out of the explanation he comes up with, when he's laying broken on the ground; Evan hadn't shifted anyways, so it wasn't that much of a lie.

Evan hadn't had shifted because he knew that if he fell from a high enough distance it would kick in his muscle reaction, and his wings would catch him before he hit the ground, besides, he was pretty sure it took a fall from something much taller than a tree to kill a dragon.  
There are many reasons why Evan does it, and many reasons why he's here now, an entire week after his failure:

1- It's the break, so the only place he could be absent to was his house, a house that's empty - sans himself - more often than not.

2- By the time the only other occupant of the Hansen household returned, Evan would be long, long gone.

3- She'd be distraught, possibly, like she was supposed to, but his lost would mean less money spent, and less stress to make ends meet.

4- The only person to find out before school started, the one who only gave him the time of day because it was convenient, wouldn't give a shit.

5- The people at school wouldn't give a shit, unless the class let out earlier because of it.

6- The beta he'd been pining after for what felt like years, the one who didn't know him, wouldn't give a shit.

7- The government that hunted down people like him wouldn't give a shit.

8- He was absolutely alone.

He went to Ellison, because that had been his second home for the longest time, found the tallest tree he could, climbed as high as the branches would allow, and still came out with nothing other than broken limb; the doctors said he was lucky, his mom said he was lucky, Evan just felt like an utter failure.

He picked somewhere different this time, unknown terrain, thinking maybe the change in setting will ruin whatever so called lucky streak he apparently has, he thinks the abandoned apple orchard makes for a fitting place for someone like him to end it all. When he felt at Ellison, nobody had been there, or close, no one had come for him, so he expects even less of a crowd here.

He doesn't get to climb any of the trees, or to check around for a tall enough tree, or to shift in order to look for tall enough trees; because his ears caught a sound that kicked his inner omega into gear.

There were very few things capable of doing such a thing, though the majority had to do with scent, not sound; but as Evan found himself running in the direction of the sound, he realized it could only be one thing.

It wasn't human, not right now at least, Evan could still sense the humanity as an undertone to the wail; that's what it was, there was someone crying, someone young, they sounded scared, and they had to be for them to have shifted.

 _Lost_

Evan accelerated his steps, falling into agreement with his instincts, something ringing in his ears

 _I'm lost_

He felt as though the plants were moving out of his way, or guiding him closer to where he had first heard the sound.

 _Help me_

Evan came to a stop in a clearing, standing there, looking like they were about to burst into tears, was a small shaking dragon, black scales that glowed reddish as they breathed out, grey smoke coming out of their snout. Evan doesn't know what to do about a dragon pup, but he knows he can't leave them either, so he takes a deep breath and hopes his instincts are enough.

"Hey"

The dragon whirls towards him, their body going tense, scales bristling to a dark maroon; Evan puts his hands up where they can see them, and makes no other movement.

"I'm here to help"

 _I want my dad_

Evan is suddenly aware that he's hearing them, even though they didn't open their mouth, that he only does because he's a dragon too.

 _Dad!_

There's a shift in the very air of the orchard, an Evan's senses light up like a Christmas tree at the smell of an alpha.

"Tera!"

Evan is frozen in place, as the trees give way to a worried figure, one that's dressed in dark colors, one that stops dead in their tracks when they see him, one he recognizes. Connor Murphy stands in front of Evan, looking as though Evan is the scary one of the two, it lasts a whole second.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

In times like these Evan's inner omega lines up with his anxiety, and Evan makes himself small instinctively, even though he knows he could very easily take on any alpha at school, what with being a giant acid spitting flying lizard.

"I just- I was- but then I heard- and I- I'm sorry, I'll go, sorry"

He chanced a step backwards but was stopped by a low growl.

"You're not going anywhere Hansen"

Evan swallowed, stuck in place as Connor got closer, and his scent became stronger, he was obviously angry, but also weary, and he smelled nice, and Evan really didn't need to be thinking that right now, damn it.

"What did you mean you heard her?"

Evan hasn't exactly been diagnosed with it, but he knows he's a compulsive liar, sometimes, when faced with terrifying alphas that look ready to tear him to pieces, it works in his favor, or when he needs to hide his true nature from others; both of those criteria have been met, because he doesn't trust Connor one bit.

At the very least he knows the gender of his fellow dragon born, and if Jared knew that's what he was calling it Evan would never hear the end of it, that's if Jared didn't immediately turn him in, because, Evan doesn't trust Jared either. Surprisingly, and most likely because of the dragon pup still in the area, Evan trusts Connor more than he does Jared, but only slightly so.

"She was crying and she's a kid so, you know, omega senses, or well, you don't know because you're not an omega, um…"

"Right"

"So I heard her, and instinct kicked in, and-"

Evan gets an overwhelming feeling of confusion, enough so that his eyes tear up, but it's not his own, he licks his lips and closes his eyes.

"She's upset"

Connor frowns at him, looks at the dragon pup, and instantly transforms, every feature softens exponentially as he moves to pick the girl up into his arms, and Evan notices that she only smells of Connor, no one else; that must be hard.

"If you tell anyone about this Hansen"

"Who would I tell?"

"That asshole alpha you're friends with"

"Jared isn't my friend, he's mostly just stuck with me because our moms get along"

Connor looks confused for a moment, then gets a look like he had an epiphany, then looks at Evan with something close to regret but second hand, as if he was feeling it in Evan's stead; it was a hard to read expression, but it wasn't outright pity.

"That sucks"

Evan bites back a sarcastic remark.

"Yeah, so, I won't tell anyone"

Connor levels him with another hard to read look, like he's weighting down something, and then nods towards him.

"Well, come on then"

He stars moving deeper into the orchard, Evan's body follows before he has the time to realize he's moving; it's ridiculous, Connor hadn't even used his alpha voice.


	3. Ομολογίες

I have the entire plot of this story planned already, but like, I always do, and I don't always stick to it. The key is to know when to be flexible and when to be stubborn, because stories sometimes have minds of their own, you know?

I'm currently studying Greek, hence the titles. Every time I write vita like beta I feel wrong, bc I know better now, I shouldn't, but also, if I wrote vita no one would know wtf I'm talking about

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3\. Ομολογίες

Connor would admit he was an asshole, but not in the way Kleinman is an asshole, Connor is violent, sure, and often defensive, but Kleinman just spends his time digging around for things to make others snap, and while Connor probably wasn't the kind of person someone like Evan Hansen should be around of, Kleinman was way, way worse. At the very least Connor was honest, rude, and anger prone, and volatile, but not any less honest because of that.

Connor is also very protective, particularly with Tera, who is the only person that actually gets happy to see him, so there are plenty of reasons why Connor shouldn't be showing Hansen this, and yet…

Yet here he is, guiding Evan Hansen to Tera's nest, and he doesn't actually know why, but thinks if he asks Hansen enough questions maybe the answer will appear in front of him, so he does.

"You never told me what you were doing here in the first place"

Hansen shakes in place, despite the fact that neither has stopped walking, and Connor thinks he has a right to do so, because he's following an alpha into an unknown location, away from prying eyes; but then again, Connor isn't the normal alpha, he's one that has a now again-human two year old in his arms, so… he isn't sure what that brings to the table.

Showing Hansen the nest is an impulse, really, but when he sees the shorter boy's look darken into one he recognizes too well, it becomes something else, something he can't quite figure out. He thinks Hansen makes up an excuse to cover up what he really came to the orchard for, Connor doesn't call his bullshit because he's familiar with failure, so if Hansen wants to lie to himself, then Connor's not gonna stop him; but it means that he came without telling anyone, because Connor knows how this works.

Tera is quiet as they walk, but her hazel eyes are wide open and set on Evan, they look particularly amber right now, as they tend to whenever she de-transforms, but they'll go back to their weird greenish-brown when they're at the nest; Connor still thinks it's cool that they change with the light, and with the transformation. Connor thinks Tera is smarter than she should be for someone her age, or maybe he's actually being more affected by this whole taking care of her than he cares to admit.

Evan glances at her every once in a while, only when Connor isn't directly looking at him, but the alpha still catches his from the corner of his eye; his expression is odd, like he can't decide how to feel about her, but there's no trace of the disgust Connor sort of expected, considering what Tera was, but something else entirely. Connor gets distracted for a second, as he checks for any signs that someone might've stumbled into the area while he was away, finding nothing as per usual, when his seriously justified paranoid investigation is interrupted by laughter.

It takes him a moment to realize it came from Tera, bright and loud like children's laughter tends to be, and he notices Evan looks exponentially more relaxed now, a smile trying to draw itself on his lips. Connor feels like he's been deprived of an important experience, as Evan notices his eyes, grows flustered, and proceeds to glare at the ground; Connor somehow manages to swallow the disappointed whine that wants to leave him.

The trees open to the abandoned building turned nest, Tera transforms again and jumps out of his arms to run inside, Connor motions for Evan to walk in first. The part they enter through has no roof, not due to the building being old, but like it was ripped out of its place, the actual nest is in the still covered part, dimly illuminated thanks to the sun filtering in.

Tera makes a run to the pile of cloth her mom had left behind, most of the nest was already built when Connor found it, and makes a weird sound; Evan shakes in place, like he's battling with his instincts, Connor huffs.

"What?"

Evan whirls towards him, frowns for a moment, and then looks back to the ground; Connor almost misses the weight of his eyes on him, and chides himself for it, it's just his inner alpha dicking with him as per usual.

"She wants you to join her"

Evan sounds embarrassed about it, like there's something lewd about using his omega abilities to translate for Connor, or maybe he's weary because alphas don't usually take well to being taught things by omegas; which explained why most high-school teachers were either alphas or betas. But Connor was more than ok with it; really, anything that helped him keep Tera happy was good in his book, and he knew he was lacking in the guardian department, at least Evan had instinct to fall back on when he didn't know how to dad. Connor was trying to be a dad; he knew he was, somewhere deep inside him, but well… wording.

Connor makes his way towards the cloth pile, wherein Tera has buried herself, tail swishing just in sight; something told Connor to transform, and he was often glad when his instincts actually helped some, so he did, careful to go straight to his leopard form; there was no need for Evan to know everything. Evan, somehow unaffected by the signal Tera was sending to 'come play with her', most likely due to his distance, sat down in a dry patch of wood that was still away from the outline of the nest watching them; or maybe his preservation instinct was stronger than the 'please child' one.

"I'm guessing she takes after her other parent then"

He says that with a soft expression on his face, eyes trained to the breathing bundle beside Connor, then, like a glass braking, his eyes go wide and fly towards Connor.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, it's just, she's a fire drake, and obviously you're not, I mean, you know that, of course, and I- wait, do you still even understand me?"

Connor nodded, before his attention was dragged away by an emerging Tera, who huffed at him but then glanced at Evan and made another noise. Evan frowns for a moment, and then shakes his head like he's trying to change the train his thoughts had gone to.

"She's confused about me being here"

"I think you're paraphrasing that one, but she is two year old, so I'll let this one slide"

"I mean, I do want to know, but she does as well, I promise"

"And I'm inclined to believe you, surprisingly"

Connor doesn't have an explanation on the top of his head, not a truthful one anyways, but he doesn't think Evan will take well to half-truths with everything that's happened between them. Connor does stumble into something that sort of makes sense, even if it feels slightly off, but it's the best he'll get, so it'll have to do.

"You're here because I need help from an omega; Tera isn't mine, so I don't get all the parental instincts around her I would with my own pup, but an omega? Well, you get the picture"

Evan's mouth forms a silent 'oh', and then something raw takes over his features, as though he's seeing Connor for the very first time, actually seeing him; then he swallows looking at his nails.

"I'm not sure I'd be of much help, omega or no; but I… I know what our society does to her kind, so, I want to regardless?"

Connor licks his lips, almost surprising himself at the feel of fur underneath his tongue, but he manages not to let it be external.

"Would I have your word that none of this leaves the orchard?"

Evan gets this resolute look on his face; it changed his entire posture, and Connor finds himself liking how it looks on him.

"I promise"

"Ok"

"I should get going, my mom will get worried if I'm not home when she stops to change"

"Yeah, let me guide you back to civilization, don't want to raise any suspicions"

Evan nods, standing up and dusting himself, Connor turns to Tera, who's now giving him that look she always gets when she realizes he's about to leave.

"I'll be right back firefly"

Connor takes Evan through the shortest route back to the fence, stopping there and waiting, watching as the omega shook in place for a moment, before he realized what was happening and vaulted with a short wave goodbye. Connor was amused and understanding over anything else, a solid feeling that the other would come back to help stray him from the other options.

Connor didn't realize, until much later, that there was no way someone who transformed into a fox could understand someone who transformed into a leopard, not when in animal form; that the only reason Evan did was because he was a shapeshifter, but the omega hadn't acted surprised… now that he thought about it, why had Hansen been able to understand Tera? Instincts did little to help a language barrier. Something didn't fit.


	4. Αύριο

Fuck slow burn my dudes.

Also, fuck consistent chapter length.

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4\. Αύριο

Evan drops into his bed, staring at his white ceiling, and processes the situation he's gotten into. He's unsure whether the rush to help Tera comes from his omega side, his dragon side, or a combination of both; most likely the latter.

The thing is, Evan has no idea what to do now; he left without any means to contact Connor, and no indications of how often, and for how long, the alpha stayed at the orchard. Hopefully if he returns tomorrow at around the same time he'll be there. With a groan, the omega rolls over, gaze falling over his computer.

Sighing for longer than really necessary, Evan lifts himself from bed, crosses the short way to the laptop, grabs it one handed, and promptly gets back in bed. This is a process that goes a lot less smooth now that he has a cast, but nothing breaks so he sighs again, this time in relief.

Quickly setting up, he opens a word document, and begins typing; the process is one he's been avoiding like a plague, but he thinks he can still utilize it, so long as he's careful.

 _Dear Evan Hansen_

 _You know how in stories there's always a scene where everything changes abruptly, so that the plot may run its course? Well, today was that kind of day._

 _Today you went to the old apple orchard just outside of town for a change of view, a breath of fresh air, so on. And you stumbled upon Connor Murphy, you know, Zoe's brother, that one alpha everyone at school is somewhat scared of… yeah._

 _Thing is, you kind of found out this secret about him, and the only reason you came out unscratched is because he needed help, and you've promised not to tell anyone;_ _I mean, who would you tell?_ _But now you've no idea how to help, because he didn't give you any info, or way to find him, so you can only hope you'll meet him if you go to the orchard again._

 _So today was a weird day, and tomorrow will be a weird day, and who knows how your life will change now that you're tied up in this._

 _Sincerely your best and most dearest friend_

 _Me_

With a long sigh he double checks the content, and deems it vague enough not to raise suspicion, so he saves it to print later; together with the other ones of these he's written so far, the number is really low, but that makes sense, Evan didn't do much before today.

.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Connor needs a plan, because he didn't have one when he met Hansen the first time, and that can't do; not when the omega is hiding something. Connor is going to ask his questions, and get his answers, and find what to do if things go south.

He could take Hansen on a fight, particularly since the other seems reluctant to shift, and even if he did, Connor's still an alpha; whatever animal Hansen is hiding under his fox guise will still be smaller than him. But Connor doesn't want to fight Evan, not after what happened today, he really hopes whatever secret Evan's hiding isn't something that'll put Tera in danger, because Connor was not lying when he said he needed help from an omega.

Speaking of, the dragon pup had become a bit restless when Connor returned to the nest, kept pulling blue things into a particular pile, staring at the entrance, or sniffing the air and Connor; like she was waiting for something. It took a while for Connor to realize what it meant, that Tera was reacting to the fact that there had been an omega here, a year since her mother, and then he had to reassure her that Evan would be back tomorrow, only to realize he was reassuring himself too.

How did that happen anyways? One moment both Tera and himself had been wary and careful, but then… then Evan made Tear laugh - it had been obvious from the look on his face -, and had translated for her so Connor could know what she wanted. And then, once he was gone, both of them had been affected.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow Connor would see him again, and ask his questions, and then take him to see Tera, and then get some way to contact him because this was ridiculous. And Evan Hansen would be there.

He would be.

He had to be.

Neither dragon pup nor alpha would deal well if he didn't; that much Connor was certain of.

So Connor would see the omega tomorrow.

Tera would see the omega tomorrow.

Evan Hansen would be at the orchard tomorrow.


	5. Πτώση

Inspiration is into some weird shit.

I'm an Argentinean writing in English and titling in Greek; this is my life.

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5\. Πτώση

Evan was, honestly, not expecting to arrive this early to the orchard; as in, it was hours before the time he had done this yesterday, and yesterday he had come here with a more time sensitive goal in mind. Not that he thought he could be late for this, but well, there was more freedom, due to the whole Connor never giving him any details thing; only, of course the uncertainty and want to not fuck up made him earlier.

So, it's earlier, which means Evan doesn't actually know if Connor's around yet, and he can't venture deeper in on his own, or he could but not to the nest, least he do something stupid like adding his scent to the mix. The urge had been there the previous day, somewhat manageable with the physical presence of Connor to remind him the nest wasn't up for grabs, without the alpha actually there it would be a lot harder to ignore.

So Evan forces himself to remain close to the main entrance, he still roams around as being in spaces such as this one - open, and thrumming with greenery and life - tends to fill him with unbridled energy; it makes sense considering he's a forest dragon, and thankfully he can blame it on foxes if Connor sees him like this. By the time Evan tires himself and lies down beneath a nice apple tree there are footsteps coming from deeper in the orchard, rushed and hasty, and a familiar scent wafting through the air.

Connor breaks out from the tree line practically panting, head whirling around in every direction, when his eyes fall on Evan; the alpha all but deflates as he makes his way towards him.

"How long have you been here?"

Evan doesn't actually know, but he was pacing for a while, so he gives an estimate.

"Maybe an hour?"

Connor's face flashes through a few emotions before he sighs and nods, offering Evan a hand.

"Come on Hansen"

Evan wipes his hand over the grass, which bends to his movement as if trying to keep him there, before he takes Connor's hand. The alpha pulls him to his feet like it's the easiest thing in the world, and starts pulling him in the direction of the nest, while Evan tries really hard to keep his inner omega down; Connor probably hadn't even realized, considering how antsy he'd been before noticing Evan on the floor.

Still, just telling himself that it wasn't on purpose didn't stop the fluttering in his chest at the contact, or the way the plants he steps on come back up more grown than they were. Hopefully Connor would eventually calm down enough to notice how much Evan was sweating and would let go of his hand; giving an end to the dilemma.

Connor doesn't let go or stop until they've reached the nest, and he lets Evan go in a swift movement, like them holding hands were a normal occurrence that could be brushed off as force of habit; never actually acknowledging that it had happened, and so neither would Evan.

Once they cross the doorway there's a happy chirp and Evan stumbles back as he somehow catches an exited baby dragon.

 _Hansen!_

Evan flushes as he reminds himself that this is a child who he met just yesterday, and has no real ill intent; Tera most likely believes that to be his name thanks to Connor using it. He's half-tempted to answer her in draconic, mostly because she had been absolutely delighted when he had made a comment in the language yesterday, but refrains himself.

"My name's Evan"

 _Dad calls you Hansen though._

"Uhm"

Evan quickly looks at Connor, who seems to be completely lost as to what's happening.

"I don't um… don't really know how to explain that"

 _Can I call you Vanhan? It's both_

Evan lets out a chuckle at that, because of course her mind would do that, it wasn't the worst thing to be called though, and she was too adorable.

"Yeah, ok, both is good"

With another happy trill she transforms into human, causing Evan to shift his hold on her with a start, and looks at Connor expectantly. Evan shifts her again so he can more easily pass her over.

"Here, she wants you to hold her"

Connor nods firmly before reaching for her, movements careful and gentle, like he was afraid to break her; Evan bit back the fond smile that wanted to come out at such a display.

"You know I'm gonna want to know what she told you, right?"

Evan is glad the he remembered not to slip into Draconic.

"She thought my name was Hansen, since that's what you've been calling me"

Connor, for all the tenseness still present in him, has dimmed down enough that he grows flustered at Evan's words.

"No, I get that"

Evan runs a hand through the back of his neck, he doesn't mind Tera calling him weird names, because they feel mostly like nicknames, and Evan's never had one of those; he didn't want Connor to know anything about it.

"She's really smart, and decided to call me a combination of both, you know, child logic"

Connor shifted Tera in his hold, probably changing how he weight fell on him.

"I really don't"

"Oh"

Evan guesses it made sense, considering how desperate Connor had seemed to have an omega around.

"Well, you see, children think about things in a different way from anyone else, and uh- well, you called me Hansen and I responded so obviously that'd be my name, right?"

Connor blinked at him before nodding slowly.

"But I told her it was Evan, and to a child there's no reason to lie about your name"

Evan is aware that he's moving his hands, it happens whenever he gets deep enough in a topic to avoid stuttering.

"So to her both serve as my name, so obviously the only logic solution is to combine them"

Evan finishes feeling a little out of breath and glances at Connor half-expecting him to say he didn't get anything, because Evan tends to speed talk. Instead Connor is giving him this thinking look before he shifts Tera's weight again.

"Huh"

He looks like he can actually follow the logic, and seeing Connor Murphy with an expression like that while holding a two years old girl feels a bit like a revelation; of what, Evan dares not name.


	6. Ερώτηση

Connor has a gay epiphany. Also, the cast signing happens before class even starts.

I write Connor with ADD bc that's what I know, and so he gets to think in circles a lot, which allows me to write freely without having to worry about my head making me repeat things 10 times over.

Hey! Skyler here, reminding you it's fall on this hemisphere and therefore I, unlike you lot, have recently started classes.

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6\. Ερώτηση

Words pile up at the top of his throat, kept at bay only briefly, by the panic that had seized him when Evan showed no signs of appearing, only Connor had finally realized that the omega had every reason not to approach the nest on his own, so he rushed out to find him, every step adding volume to that voice in his head that assured him that if Evan had actually come, he'd be long gone by now. But Evan had been there, siting under a tree, face morphing at the sight of Connor like he'd been waiting for him, and he had.

But here they are now, Connor's arms full of still human Tera, and Evan looking flustered after having to explain her way of thinking to Connor; and Connor realizes he has yet to ask him everything he wants to know, and now he's made asking some of them impossible, because Connor refuses to put Tera through the emotions those questions have the possibility of arising.

Still, he's been holding his tongue, and something has to slip before he blows up on all three of them; but he's surprised by what makes it out.

"How'd you break your arm?"

Evan blinks at him, and Connor doesn't blame him for his surprised look, he looks down to the pristine white cast for a moment before returning his gaze to where he had it until now - somewhere close enough to Connor's face not to be rude while still avoiding eye contact -.

"I- I fell off a tree"

If it hadn't been for yesterday Connor would've never known the difference, Hansen is the perfect liar; only that's not quite so, now that Connor knows he sees the signs, barely noticeable giveaways. Evan's eyes drop, his hands move for the seam of his polo, he shifts his weight into his talons while folding in on himself, none of which stands out from normal, but it does, to Connor it does.

"That sucks"

Evan makes a noncommittal shrug, and Connor doesn't push, but he does make another spur question.

"Do you want me to sign it?"

Evan's head whirls up towards him, and meets Connor's eyes for the second time since this started.

"I don't- don't have any- anything to write with"

There's an actual sound from Tera, as she starts struggling in Connor's grasp, Evan's eyes move to her.

"Oh… she says there's some here"

Connor blinks.

"She knows what a sharpie is"

Evan flounders.

"She might have used a more descriptive name for it"

Tera makes another sound like the first, and Connor gets the memo and puts her down, she transforms instantly and then takes off towards the taller parts of the nest. Connor makes to follow after her before he notices Evan isn't following, he remembers how he hadn't yesterday either, remaining at the edge of the nest, and he's about to brush it off when his eyes catch on the only other blue thing in the room.

Connor might not have the necessary instincts to know what Tera wants all the time, but he's pretty sure the fact that there's a pile pretty much made for Evan means the omega is completely welcomed by her; and though Connor still has his doubts, there's no way he's letting Tera find out about them. So he walks over to the blue pile, eyes fixed on it to avoid looking at the other boy in the room.

"You can step in you know"

"What?"

Connor bit his cheek to keep himself in check.

"Tera made you a pile"

"Oh"

Connor looks back to the omega and oh... Evan has gone red, blush covering not only his cheeks and nose, but also the tips of his ears, which is- unfairly cute.

Fuck.

The omega brushes a hand through his hair before tentatively stepping forward, slowly making his way to the pile, growing ever closer to Connor and stopping once they're a step from each other. He looks up, face still very much flustered.

Shit.

Connor moves away quickly, and clears his suddenly dry throat.

"I'll uh- go help look"

He turns around and rushes to the furthest pile he can find, feeling as though as he's finally able to breathe.

Damn it.

This is bad.

Connor focuses on finding anything that could work for writing on a cast, he doesn't know why it's so important, but it's easier to think about than whatever he had been feeling right then. About a minute later there's a loud victorious chirp, and Tera emerges from a pile with a bunch of markers on her maw, flying to where Evan has sat in the blue pile.

Connor watches as she puts them down in front of Evan, who's sitting crisscross on the blue pile, before twirling and jumping into the empty space between the omega's legs; Evan goes stiff first but seems to relax a few breaths later, and looks up to Connor, as if inviting him to join them. Connor manages to fight a lot of things as he approaches, first the impulse to rush towards them, the impulse to sit himself behind Evan and wrap himself around both of them; that last one has him having to fight the urge to blush as he finishes his normal pace approach and sits himself in front of the omega and the dragon pup.

Tera gives him an odd look that seems to make Evan blush, and Connor is both grateful and disappointed in spades when the omega forgoes a translation of whatever she's thinking; so he focuses on picking the only marker in the group that's an actual sharpie, and tests it on his thumb. It's a black marker, which is probably why it's unused, and when he looks back to Evan's cast he's really glad it is; the omega seems to notice his gaze because he shifts the casted arm closer, having to move so he doesn't squish the little one in his lap. Connor tries to help, key word being try because Evan winces in pain, and Connor almost drops his arm, but reasons that would only hurt him more, so he says a quick apology and proceeds.

There's something particularly possessive in the way his name takes up the entirety of the cast, but Connor couldn't help himself.

"Thanks"

"You don't have to lie Hansen"

"No, no, it's really ok, at least now my I have an escape when my mom eventually tries to talk me into getting people to sign it"

He moves his arm back, and Tera transforms as he's accommodating himself; and Connor shrugs at him, because fair enough. Then, as he watches Evan focus entirely on Tera, who looks all too comfortable in her spot, he realizes he has yet to solve their little problem.

"Do you have your phone?"

Evan looks up at him and blinks before he makes sense of what Connor is asking exactly, which, fair; the omega nods and wriggles in place to take the phone out of the hoodie he's wearing - the days have been getting progressively colder -, and hands it over with his good hand. Connor takes it like it's fragile, and in his hands it might as well be, and enters his number quickly before sending himself a text; then, after giving the phone back, he pulls his own from his own pocket, and saves the new contact.

It's just one less thing, and as the day progresses, and Evan relaxes enough to start playing with Tera; Connor decides that it'll be enough, even if school is looming on them, even if he has to remind himself to be weary, to not get his hopes up. It will have to be enough, and whatever Connor feels in regards to Evan will have to wait until after he proves his trustworthiness.


	7. Μέρος α'

This story is actually really easy to write for. I might have jinxed myself.

Hey, do you guys know what's my favorite writing utensil? Yes, it's time skips.

Aka: Skyler is lazy, and this still makes sense in the whole of things, which I think is kind of impressive, really.

* * *

7\. Μέρος α'

 _Dear Evan Hansen:_

 _Today's going to be an amazing day, and here's why. Because today all you have to do is just, be yourself. But also confident that's important and interesting, like easy to talk to, approachable. But mostly be yourself that's the big thing, like that's number one, be yourself. Just be true to yourself._

 _Also don't worry about nobody talking to you because Connor said he was going to look for you at lunch, so you can arrange how you're going to work out the whole helping him issue. But also don't worry about how that conversation will go, because there's no way to not make it awkward, even if lately the two of you've been spending more time together and-_

 _-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

And Evan was so going to need to re-make this; only, there was no time, so with a sigh he shut his laptop, just in time for his mom to enter his room.

"Morning Evan"

He gave her an awkward smile.

"Morning"

"You didn't eat last night- the money is still on the kitchen table"

He swallowed, looking away.

"Sorry I uh, forgot"

"You've got to get over being scared to order food. You know you can do it online now? No talking necessary!"

Evan didn't need to see her to know she had that one disappointed look she seemed to wear practically 24/7.

"You've uh, still gotta talk to the guy when he comes to the door and then you uh, you need to wait while he counts out change and that's, that's painfully awkward and then sometimes you uh, er- you like, touch hands and your hand is super sweaty and his isn't so he gets grossed out and uh, it's just really… really not worth it for a pizza?"

And even if it was, or if Evan were a better human being, he had felt nauseous last night, so he probably wouldn't have anyway.

"What about the letters, are you still writing them?"

"Yeah, I uh started the one for today, I was- I was gonna finish it at school"

Evan was finally able to look at her again, though not yet to make direct eye contact.

"Good! Those letters are important honey, they're going to help you boost your confidence!"

Evan looked away again.

"I uh, I don't know I guess we'll see…"

He heard his mother sigh, and knew she now bore her hopeful look, the expectant one, Evan wasn't sure which he disliked more.

"Come on Evan, it's senior year! And you have this new friend, Connor, why don't you invite him over?"

There were many reasons, none of which he could tell to his mom.

"I don't- don't know if he'd be able? I'll ask"

"Good, I've got to be off. Oh! I booked another appointment for you after school with Dr Sherman by the way. I won't be able to drop you off there, maybe Jared can drive you, or Connor if he has a car"

"But I uh, I have an appointment this Thursday"

"I know I just thought since school was starting you might need another session to help with the nerves and stuff"

Yeah… no, Jared would probably want nothing to do with him, and Connor wasn't actually his friend; neither was Jared, really, but Connor was like a weird level of acquaintance. But, again, his mom didn't need to know that.

"I uh, have to ask"

"I'm so proud of you Evan"

Evan didn't see why she'd be proud, he hadn't done anything spectacular, and he had just kind of lied to her.

"Uh thanks"

"Alright, get ready I don't want you to be late"

Evan nodded to her; she made a move to leave but stopped.

"I love you"

"I love you too"

And with that she was off, leaving Evan to dress and try to prepare for the day ahead.


	8. Μέρος β'

So the chapter got a little too long, anyway, here we go.

Originally I was going to make the transformation need them to take off their clothes, but it is too late now.

I uh, might have let myself go a little, there's an explanation planned for it, but I still feel like I should apologize? Even though I made my reasons for disliking this character clear? Oh well, sorry Jared fans.

* * *

8\. Μέρος β'

Connor was finally going to do it, he was going to have a conversation with Evan outside of the orchard, away from Tera's ears; and he was going to present all the evidence, and ask Evan what he was hiding, and deal with it however he had to. He would, even if it meant having to explain to Tera why the omega wasn't coming anymore, not that such conversation would be needed because there was no way Evan Hansen was out to hurt them.

Fuck.

Connor took a deep breath, this was bad, this was so, so very bad. He felt almost tempted to just skip, and postpone the inevitable even further, but he had promised Evan, and he didn't want to make him aware that something was wrong; nothing was wrong.

He zooned out throughout breakfast, or tried to as much as he could; not really in the mood to deal with his family when he was trying to find the right way to ask.

It would have to be private, because no matter what Evan's answer was, if he had kept it a secret then there was no way he would confess where others could hear, and Connor needed to know; even if it was something terrible, something that would mean Connor having to keep him away from the nest.

He really hopes it isn't something terrible, because they've spent the last few weeks of summer together, and Tera has obviously grown attached to Evan, especially since Evan had started taking less and less time to relax to the point of indulging Tera's whims , vis a vi acting on his omega side.

Also known as, Connor had left this go for too long, longer than probably healthy, and would have to face the music if it turned out Evan Hansen's secret could be harmful to his own remaining as one.

Connor squeezes the strap of his bag as he makes his way through the hallways; ignoring everyone and everything, until his eyes fix on a scene he wasn't aware he was familiar with. He sees Evan, all but crumpled on himself, as if trying to make himself small enough to disappear, while facing Kleinman who's doing the opposite, trying to grab as much attention as fiscally possible.

Connor's already very existent dislike of Kleinman seems fated to only increase by how noticeably uncomfortable he's making the omega Connor needs to talk to; and it's easy now to notice Evan's discomfort, because Connor has seen him at ease. Kleinman makes a motion towards Evan's cast, still occupied solely by Connor's name - though that might have to do with the fact that it takes up the good majority of it -, with a scornful smile; a look Connor's all too familiar with.

Connor thinks about walking away, now's obviously not the time, but he stops when he overhears.

"So what did you tell him? That you were a canine without specifying on size?"

Evan goes red, shaking his head almost violently.

"What does that have to- have to do with any- anything?"

"Evan, no alpha is actually interested is a fox omega, even if Murphy is bat-shit crazy, the moment he finds out he'll want nothing to do with you"

Connor shouldn't really be surprised, considering Evan told him what his relationship with Jared was really like. Still the tone and the words awaken something in Connor that he'd rather not acknowledge, and the next thing he knows is that he's crossing the rest of the distance towards them.

Evan must hear him or something - maybe sense his eyes on him or some other bullshit - because his head lifts just slightly so and his eyes find Connor; who only stops when he's right in front of them and Jared is gaping at him. He doesn't pay any mind to the other alpha, attention set on Evan who unspools himself in front of him; and is it fair that Connor notices how much more relaxed he looked now? It doesn't seem like it.

"Hey"

"Connor! H-hi… hi Connor"

Yeah, Connor's sudden capability of noticing everything that could raise his hope about Evan was definitely unfair.

"Connor, loving the hair length, very troubled teen chick"

Normally Connor would've snapped at Kleinman for that one, but as it stands the crass words serve to distract him from dangerous musings. He's not prepared for what happens.

"That- that's not nice Jared"

There's an odd almost warm feeling trying to wriggle its way into Connor's chest, he pushes it away as he concentrates on the annoying look on Kleinman's face.

"You know he's a fox right?"

Connor raises an eyebrow at him, because he honestly has no idea what he's trying to get at.

"Oh wow, no, I had no idea"

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Evan hide a smile behind a jolt at the deadpan tone he uses, quickly enough that Connor's sure Kleinman missed it.

"Thought I'd warn you, too small to be of use"

It dawn on Connor like a glass cup crashing against the floor, and his body moves practically on its own as he pins Kleinman to the lockers, hissing in that way too reptilian way he does - how Connor hasn't been caught just for that difference alone is a wonder -, eyes slitting along, as if to complete the picture.

"Listen you insufferable asshole, you leave Hansen the fuck alone, got it?"

Kleinman swallows noticeably and nods face pale; Connor drops him and turns back to Evan, who's just standing there, looking at him.

"Come with me"

Evan nods, face still stuck on an expression Connor doesn't know if he wants to be able to read; he follows him away from there, and that's what matters.


	9. Προοπτική

Some explanations and some questioning; strangely, not related to each other. The thesaurus is my favorite dinosaur. Also I had a busy week, sorry this took so long.

Technically Evan always smelled like an omega, the same way Tera smell like an alpha even though she's 2 years old, because the second nature comes with the ability to shapeshift, and both have been able to do so since birth; Connor is an odd case because he's a shapeshifting dragon, so even though he was always able to shift, he didn't have a scent until much later.

* * *

9\. Προοπτική

Say there's a person that you've gotten practically forced to interact with, say that, at one point, it stops being a chore as you find more and more things you like about them, say that they present a few days after you became an alpha, and they come to school with the tale tell scent of an omega hanging off of them; and say you realize, right there and then, that you want them. But there's a problem, because they're too small, and your family would never let you be with an omega that can't give you pups, so you try to get rid of the feelings.

Say there's an infamous asshole at school, whole basket case scenario, everyone is scared of him, whether they're outward about it or not; say that you've memorized their scent, if only to more easily avoid them, but then you smell it on someone else, you smell it on the previous person. So you get angry, angry at the omega because he carries their name in big bold letters like a claim and pretends he doesn't know what it implies, angry at the other person because they're crazy enough - brave enough - not to let things like the size of their animals stop him from getting what he wants, angry at yourself because you weren't and now it's too late, because even though there's no sign of courting between them yet, Jared knows it won't be long before the name in Evan's cast isn't the only possessive claim Connor has on him.

Jared is honestly a bit surprised at how protective Connor got, sure he crossed a line, anger makes one prone to such things, but he wasn't expecting Murphy to get mad enough to half-shift. So now he gets back to his feet, trying to gather himself and breathe normally, all while watching as Evan follows after Connor almost dutifully; the guy hadn't even used the alpha voice.

He wonders how that happened; because there was no way Evan was telling the truth when he said they had a single encounter during the break. No, there had to be more to it than that, Murphy was too protective, too comfortable making shows of aggression in front of someone as easily frightened as Evan, if it wasn't for the fact that Evan still smelled mostly of himself - though the scent of ash now lingered almost like an aftertaste, combined with something else that was undistinguishably Murphy but was less noticeable -, Jared would've said they were courting already; but they weren't so the only solutions were that either Evan was lying to Jared - unlikely considering it was Evan, and he had trouble being anything other than good -, or Murphy was hiding something, something that explained why he seemed suddenly so interested in Evan, and so eager to play protective alpha for him.

Whichever was the case, Jared would find out by the end of the day.

-.-. - -. -. - .-. .-. ... / - ..- .-. -.

Connor's day was weird, after getting Evan away from Jared, and helping him calm down a little - Evan eventually got his breathing even enough to thank him -, Connor found himself walking the omega to class; as in, to every class - and how Connor kept finding himself waiting outside Evan's classrooms was a mystery -, which seemed to warrant the attention of like half the school.

So when lunch came around and Evan said he had something to do in the computer lab, Connor decided to follow him mostly to make sure none of the school's resident assholes got to him alone; he still had to make his questions, damn it!

But anyways, that's how they ended there, Evan typing something Connor was only mildly curious about, while Connor slumped on a nearby chair looking to the door. The alpha figured this was as good a time as any, Evan had relaxed as much as he could - not much, but Connor couldn't blame him, school had that effect -, and there had been a good amount of time passed since the Kleinman incident.

"What are you writing?"

Connor had asked because he thought it was harmless enough to start a conversation, but by the sound coming from Evan's chair, the omega disagreed.

"Oh, uhm it's just- just an assignment"

Connor huffed.

"Don't force yourself Hansen"

"Sorry"

Connor let silence fall on them for a bit, just until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Different question, back when you first came to the nest, or well every time you've been rather, how do you resist the urge to shift?"

The sound of typing ceased and was replaced by a chair being moved, Connor could feel Evan's eyes on him.  
"You know"

Connor turned to him, gazes meeting, and surprisingly Evan didn't look away immediately.

"I know you're hiding something, I do because I saw what you looked like when telling something I knew was a lie, and you were lying to Kleinman"

Evan frowns, his posture is entirely defensive, and Connor knows he's going to try to keep it hidden, so he steels himself. He doesn't want to have a full out screaming match with Evan, but he will if he has to.

"Yeah, because I can't tell him I've spent the last week of summer with you, because I don't want him to think we're having sex or whatever, but I can't tell him what we were really doing"

"Bullshit"

Evan stands up; Connor follows him, standing between him and the door.

"We're not done here"

"Well, you know the truth, you know I'm- what I did, so I am, I'm done"

"That has nothing to do with this!"

Evan stumbles backwards.

"What?"

Connor takes a deep breath.

"So you're suicidal, so what? I am too, that's not what this is about"

Evan looks away, and that's the first sign, the scent is the next, fear from Evan is like burning grass, potent in a way that makes Tera's ashy scent seem sweet in comparison. Still, Connor presses.

"I just can't make sense of it, because I know you shouldn't be able to understand even if you hear, so how do you know?"

"I-"

Evan stopped still, biting his lip, and looking around, before he sighed, body slumping in defeat.

"Fine, I just- I can't tell you here, ok? If anyone happens to hear"

Connor breathed deeply, before he nodded; it seemed like a fair request, considering what they were talking about.

"Sure, I'll look for you at the end of school; drive you to the orchard, and we'll talk"

"Yes- yeah ok"

Connor gave a solid nod, before turning to face the door again, grateful that no one had come in during their little confrontation.


	10. Η αλεπού

Η αλεπού = The fox

Also, I added a little challenge for those of you who know Morse code from classes; or have read Homestuck at some point.

* * *

10\. Η αλεπού

Jared is on his feet the moment he sees Connor guiding Evan far away from the cafeteria during lunch, he'll admit to losing them in the current of people that suddenly formed between them, but he saw the general direction the took. See, Jared had kept a close eye on Connor throughout the day, only to find the alpha walking alongside Evan, playing the part of bodyguard.

It was extremely out of place to see Connor be nice-ish to anyone; it was even odder to see Evan so at ease with the extra attention, or well, as at ease as Evan was capable of being; still impressive, still odd for two people that only talked once. So Jared looks for them, until he smells Evan's scent coming from the computer lab, he gets close enough to hear, but far enough to be able to run away easily.

"Sure, I'll look for you at the end of school; drive you to the orchard, and we'll talk"

That's definitely Murphy's voice, tense like he's only agreeing to appease Evan.

"Yes- yeah ok"

Evan sounds hesitant in exchange, and there's a hint of fear lingering in the air; but then there are approaching footsteps and Jared has to gun it.

He knows the Murphys are wealthy, so Connor most likely has a car, which would make tailing them harder, but Jared had the power of internet on his side. A quick search for orchards in their area has him stumbling on an old article about the Autumn Smiles Apple Orchard, now abandoned, and he figures it's the one that makes the most sense, if only for that one characteristic; because of course Connor would hang out in an abandoned place, and of course Evan would be partial to minor law breaking when it came to trees.

So when school ended Jared made sure to leave a behind Connor and Evan, letting just enough distance between them that they wouldn't notice they were being followed, as if they did, well, Jared had to get his car too. He stops to watch them climb on Connor's car, and drive away, before he gets in his own car; he's caught in the stream of people trying to get out of the parking lot, but it's ok, he knows where he's going.

It takes him a while, what with dealing with the school traffic and then the one outside, but when he arrives at the Autumn Smiles Apple Orchard he notices Connor's car parked nearby. So he parks his own car and gets out, nose at the ready to locate them, he has to search for Murphy's scent, because Evan's is really hard to pick up within this much greenery.

.- - .- / - ... . / ... .- - . / .-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. . / .. -. / - .- -/ -.-. - -. ... . -.-. ..- - .. ...- . / -.-. ... .- .-. - . .-. ...

During the summer Connor had gotten really good at getting stuff that would work for the nest without alerting his parents about it, or well, kind of alerting them, but they thought he was using the money to buy drugs, and that seemed to be the general cover story for all things Tera. Because of the slowly cooling weather he had gotten a few heavy blankets at a second hand store, they were in the best shape of the pile, and the materials felt good against Connor's palm, but he had to scent them first if he wanted Tera to allow them in the nest; and he needed her to because he wanted her warm for when snow came and the old ones for that were on their last threads.

Replacing parts of the nest was a process generally done by omegas; a thought that brought Connor to the current predicament. He had driven Evan to the orchard - leaving the blankets on the front seat to absorb Connor's scent -, only because the omega didn't want people at school overhearing, and because Connor wanted to know the truth.

They make it to the first clearing, the one Evan ad been waiting in during his second visit, when the omega stops and turns to him.

"Ok, so, uhm, look! There's a good reason why I keep it a secret, and it's not that I think you'd tell anyone but just- you've no idea what they would do to me if anyone finds out, what they do to my kind"

Connor keeps quiet, sensing that the other needs to get through this; or maybe his patience is born out of his hope that he can keep whatever it is that they have built in the short time they've spent together.

"And even if you decide that you want nothing to do with me anymore, I still stand for what I said, I won't say a word"

Then he breathes and finally meets Connor's gaze.

"I uh, it's easier if I just show you"

Connor concedes, taking a step back, stopping just in time to hear a branch breaking; both he and Evan immediately look towards the source, only Evan is sniffing and pales, so Connor sniffs too, and the air smells of pepper and soap, and the unmistakable scent of an alpha. Connor growls as he makes the connection between the scent and Evan's face, the mysterious alpha steps forward, and lo and behold, it's Kleinman, because of course it is.

Connor feels himself tense, but he tries not to show just how much of a problem is that Kleinman knows about this place, or is here, because if he does then Kleinman won't leave, or will come here on his own when he knows Connor's not here; he can't risk that, he can't.

"The fuck are you doing here?"

Kleinman puts on the stupid grin he always has, the one that make's Connor's nerves fickle like lightning about to strike, in the worst way possible.

"Well, you see, I knew something was up with the two of you, and hey! I was right"

"Jared, you have to go"

Kleinman turns to him, and Connor follows his line of sight instinctively, Evan is curled into himself again, and even though the orchard makes a great job of hiding Evan's scent, Connor can still sense the change as fear settles in.

"Yeah, I don't think so; Murphy obviously hides something here, I'm gonna find out what"

There's a second where the air around them stills, and then, the fear banishes like it wasn't there in the first place, replaced by an almost suffocating anger.

"This has nothing to do with him"

"Oh, I think it does"

Kleinman takes a step towards Evan, and Connor can tell he's about to shift, Evan should be able to tell as well, but he stands his ground.

"I'm not going to let you go any further"

Connor doesn't really know what to do, because he's pretty sure the whole Evan thing has to do with his animal, but Evan's more than proven to be trustworthy; but before he can make up his mind Kleinman shifts, a grey wolf taking his place, and pounces at Evan. One moment Kleinman is jumping towards Evan in full wolf form, the next he's knocked aside by a long tail, and then, in front of both Connor and the recovering Kleinman, standing right where Evan had been a second ago, is a dragon. Connor felt his breath leave him, as he made sense of what that meant, that's what Evan had been hiding, he was a dragon, and he was absolutely stunning.

Starting with his head, covered in dark green scales and crowned by antler like horns that curved downwards towards his neck, beneath his chin started rows upon rows of green leaf-like feathers that increased in size and sharpness before completely disappearing where his neck ended, giving way to rough brown scales covering the rest of the body, and two wings which now stood open in a threatening manner, the membrane translucent enough that if he were to keep them still it wouldn't even register as existent, the feathers returned in his tail, this time thinner and almost root like in their shape and colors. As it was, feathers ruffled, row of sharp teeth bared, and tail swishing it was obvious he was a dragon, had he been laying still in the ground he would've looked no different from a fallen tree; the only similitude with the omega Connor had gotten so used to were the lake green eyes, that now held slit pupils.

Kleinman shifts back, face nearly devoid of color, chest heaving noticeably; that throw would've taken him out had he been a real wolf, humans are more resilient. A moment after, Kleinman raises his head and looks at Evan with wide eyes.

"Holy shit"

Connor acts fast.

"If you tell anyone-"

"You'll rip me apart?"

Connor gestures to the still angered dragon in the field.

"Pretty sure he would do it for that one"

Kleinman shivers, nods his head, and gets up before promptly running off; leaving Connor to deal with a raging omega, who's secretly protecting more than just himself. He waits a bit, watching Evan closely, making sure he can't smell Kleinman in the orchard anymore, before he does something he hasn't since he was 12.

Shapeshifting dragons had a neutral form, something to go back to when they exhausted themselves, Connor only used his once, but shifting into it is easier than the leopard he's so used to turning into. Starting with his head, which held two horns that curved like half arches upwards, the underside of his neck and body was a diluted violet while the rest was a dirty white that lingered towards pink, as if the color had been drained off him; from his nape downwards rose a row of spikes that flowed to his tail, decreasing in height but increasing in number, his wings flapped once before settling back around his body, revealing the underside to be the same diluted violet shade.

Evan's anger dissipated to give room to utter confusion, and then recognition; Connor approaches him carefully, until they're breathing at each other. Evan closes his eyes, and shifts back, Connor following close behind, and then they're back to normal, standing closer than Connor's dared to be before.

Connor sighs.

"I think we're even now"

Evan actually smiles at him then, relief shining in his eyes.

"Ok"

* * *

I spent way too much time staring at pictures of dragons to figure out what I wanted Evan to look like, I ended up giving up on getting Evan's design from google images and made one up myself. Connor's design was originally going to be based off my favorite drawing of a dragon, but I couldn't ask permission for that due to a language barrier; Tera's on the other hand is just like a cool take on fire dragons, only her scales look like cracked magma, and the spaces light up when she breathes fire or is upset. Descriptions are not my forte.


	11. Σχέδια

So, I had to change the order of this and the next two chapters because I was made aware of the weird timing I was writing this story with. So, if you could all re-read?

* * *

11\. Σχέδια

Alana was a busy person, but she was also driven, and a sucker for things that 'mattered to people', which though sometimes misguided in its outward response, was a nice sentiment. Jared knew for a fact that she would be completely on board with his idea, so long as he was sneaky about it.

Jared couldn't go to the orchard, not when the scent of ash had almost drowned him last time, but he couldn't let whatever was causing the smell to happen to remain there, not when it was obviously affecting people. Jared could literally not care less about Murphy, but Evan? Sure the omega had lied about his animal, but Jared couldn't blame him, claiming to be too small to fuck and dealing with the consequences was probably easier than admitting to being more dangerous than most - if not all - of the alphas at school and dealing with the entire alpha percentage of alumni - and maybe a few teachers, Jared wouldn't be surprised - trying to subdue him.

Everything else could be easily explained as the effects of whatever was making the orchard smell like ash; the weird behavior, the hiding things, the sudden interest in the older Murphy, so on.

Obviously whatever it was had Murphy wrapped around its metaphorical finger, and had given him the closest omega available to keep him submissive; it was too bad for "the ash" - as Jared named it to save time - had picked Jared's omega. Once the alpha got rid of "the ash" Evan would be back to his usual self, following Jared around like a lost puppy, only now Jared would be able to sink his teeth into him.

See, Jared had a plan. A plan that involved convincing Alana to help him 'revive' the old orchard, that way having professionals take care of the issue; he was sure people who worked on those kind of things would know what "the ash" was and how to deal with it.

With the thing gone Evan would come back to him, and maybe Murphy would re-bound to a moment in his life where he wasn't a psycho, but the point would be that they'd go their separate ways, Murphy to fuck knew where, and Evan back to him; and Jared would then keep him safe, and Evan would beg him to mate.

Because Jared could remember clearly Evan having no scent until a few days after he presented, and everyone knew dragons were always dragons, so obviously Evan was a half-breed of some sort, or the dragon thing was a rare-case genetic thing, like green eyes; Jared chose to believe in a combination of both, considering Evan's absentee father, and the fact that Evan already had green eyes so why not also dragon genes. Either way, Jared's genes should make sure their pups came out normal; and the fact that Evan was three times his size meant Jared could have him breed plenty of those.

Back to finding Alana to get her into the plan - without her knowing the truth behind it -; a feat not many would consider hard to achieve, but here Jared was. He eventually found her in the library, taking over half a table to work on a presentation for some class, or one of the thousands of clubs she ran.

He approached her with his most charming smile.

"Alana Beck, just the person I was looking for"

.. - .-. ... / - ... . / - - - / .-. - ...- / .-. .-. .-..

Heidi Hansen was a busy woman.

Having to take up work after Evan's father left, having to provide for herself and her child while also keeping the house, and paying for her classes so she could get her title and work on something better; it was a lot, so it was only natural that the times spent at her home were few and far in between. However, just because she spent so little time there, didn't mean she didn't notice when a new smell started lingering inside the walls, still fainter than Evan's scent, or her own, but definitely there.

So, the moment she realized the scent lingered most potently on her son, she was quick to make sense of what it was, what it meant, and when it had started. That summer, Evan had made a tentative friend, who he spent the last week of it with, a boy who wrote his name on Evan big and bold for everyone to see, and Evan had seemed perfectly ok with that which was very telling, and now the new scent; all the signs pointed to her boy having found an alpha that was interested in him.

Asking about this sort of thing should have been normal, if a bit awkward, but they weren't normal, they couldn't risk just anyone; Evan's dad, though a cheating ass, had at the very least never opened his mouth about Evan, Heidi knew because otherwise they would've had the government on their doorstep that February day.

So when she finally had the time to talk with him, even if shortly, she decided to bring it up, carefully, it could always be that she was reading too much into it. As she came inside she found Evan curled in the sofa, computer in his lap, probably writing one of the letters for Dr. Sherman.

"Hey honey, how was school?"

Evan looked up at her and gave an awkward smile.

"Uh, well, actually- I uh, saw Connor and we talked between classes so"

Heidi smiled encouragingly.

"What about Jared?"

"Oh uhm, you see, Jared is angry at me right now, because he thinks- he thinks Connor isn't good for me- for anyone, and I, well, I defended him because, you know, he's my friend too, and he's not like- like people think"

"Do you think maybe Jared was jealous?"

"Of me? I don't think so? They seem to hate each other"

Heidi chuckles.

"I was thinking more on the lines of him being jealous of Connor"

Evan looks at her like she grew a second head.

"See, that makes even less sense"

"Why? The two of you've been side by side for so long, he might be"

Evan looks away from her.

"Not after today he's not"

Heidi pauses, it was obviously not meant for her to hear, but now she's worried.

"What happened today?"

Evan whirls towards her, face pale; they stare at each other for a bit before he closes his eyes.

"I- you see, Connor, he's- he's like me, only not really because he's a shape shifting dragon, and I- I told him the truth"

Heidi smiles patiently at him as he starts playing with his shirt, eyes anywhere but at her own, going to an almost fetal position as he shifts back and forth.

"But see, Connor wanted me to show him, because everyone at school is convinced I'm a fox, so we went somewhere no one would see, but Jared- Jared was still mad about the Connor thing, so he followed us, and- he knows, he know I'm a dragon, and Connor told him to keep quiet but I- I think it's gonna blow up on my face soon"

Heidi sits down on the couch with him, her legs suddenly feeling weak; on the one hand she knows now that the boy interested in her son is safe, or safer than any other, but she now has to worry about Jared. It isn't the first time she's had to keep a close eye on a Kleinman, the boy must get his inconvenient timing from his father, but she thinks that if she plays it right, it will be the last.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do, you will talk with Connor, bring him over tomorrow after school, you're gonna need him in on this if you don't want to attract the wrong attention"

The plan was to divert the attention, alphas needed to show off, if there was no one to interest in the secret then there was no use to it; or, in this case, if there was no one to believe Jared, then he wouldn't open his mouth. They would have to play up to Jared's jealousy of Connor, Heidi would man the Kleinman parents, while Evan and Connor would have to do their classmates; that was, if the alpha agreed in the first place, Heidi had a feeling he would though.


	12. Εξηγήσεις

This one jumps perspective a lot because I couldn't decide which one was better.

I had to change the order of three chapters (this one included) so I highly recommend re-reading chapter 11 as its contents have drastically changed (ie moved to chapter 13, which will come later on)

* * *

12\. Εξηγήσεις

It was one thing to know Evan had told his mom about Connor, but not about Tera, and actually he hadn't wanted to tell on Connor, but it was the only way to explain why Evan had transformed in the first place and therefore tell her about Jared; it was another completely to know that he had to go to the Hansen household after class if he wanted this sorted with.

It wouldn't be the first time he took a long while to get to Tera, detention could take a bit, so that wasn't the problem; the problem was not making Heidi Hansen immediately hate him.

See, if Kleinman opened his mouth Evan would be taken away, and that would wreck Tera, so Connor couldn't let that happen, not if there was something he could do about it; and Heidi Hansen had a plan, a plan that would make it so Kleinman wouldn't open his stupid mouth, so Connor needed her to like him enough to tell him what it was. So maybe he's a bit nervous, but he thinks it's understandable, as he doesn't have the best track record with adults.

Evan tries to be comforting, keyword being try; Connor appreciated the feeling and all, it's just that this is sort of a big deal. So he takes the hand offered to him on his own, and steels himself

.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Is it wrong that Evan feels surprised when his mom is actually there like she said she would be? It's not that Evan's complaining, not really, he knows his mom tries really hard for the both of them, and that having to do that on top of classes, without the addition of having to pay for Evan's unstable mind, was hard enough; the therapy and pills didn't help, but she was hardly ever there, and Evan couldn't count the amount of times she made a promise to make time for him and failed to deliver, and- and he needs to stop himself least he wants to find another tree.

It probably says a lot about him that he's only still here because of a child that isn't related to him in any way shape or form, and an alpha that probably wouldn't have even known of his existence if he hadn't stumbled into the orchard. Evan doesn't know what Connor thinks of him, but at least he's here, and willing to help, which was kind of a huge deal.

Speaking of, the alpha stood tense beside him as Evan closed the door, eyes never leaving his mother, who was sitting in the living like she'd been waiting for them. Evan, unsure of what else to do, lets instinct take over and grabs Connor's hand, he's a bit surprised with himself, but Connor quickly takes the hand and grips onto it for dear life; Evan is sure it's sweaty by now, but he doesn't have the heart to pull away.

.- -. - - ... . .-./.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Mrs. Hansen looks a lot like her son, only her features seem to stand out less, Connor blames that on the second nature. It is easy though to imagine dragon blood running through this woman's veins, as she levels him with tired blue eyes - the only startling difference as Evan's lingered more towards green -.

Nerve-wracking was a good word for how Connor felt right that second, half of him wanting to run away before she gutted him, half of him wanting to fight her. Connor squeezed Evan's hand, prompting the omega to talk first.

"Mom, this is Connor"

The woman smiled then, a soft curve of her lips, as her eyes skimmed over their joined hands, if she thought anything of it she kept it to herself.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Evan talks very fondly of you"

Connor decides to ignore the way that comment makes him feel to instead acknowledge the elephant in the room.

"I think the situation could be better Mrs. Hansen"

He doesn't exactly mean it to sound as rude as it does, but she doesn't seem to mind, instead her smile turns just the slightest bit amused.

"You can call me Heidi honey, but you are right, why don't you two take a seat?"

.-.. .- ... -/.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Evan follows Connor as he takes the offer and sits down, his hand still in the alpha's grasp. He looks back to his mom, who sighs and joins her hands together.

"Well, Evan tells me Jared and you found out about him"

Connor nods, using his free hand to pick at the polish on the other one.

"It was my fault Kleinman found out, I should've noticed him following us"

Heidi waves her hand dismissively.

"Alphas are very stubborn when they want something"

Evan moves the thumb of his trapped hand against Connor's knuckles, which made him stop. Evan watched him frown at the words, like they offended him.

"Yeah well, I'm not gonna let him do as he pleases"

Heidi smiles warmly at that, nodding in agreement.

"There are plenty of ways to keep an alpha quiet, especially those your age, but considering what Evan has told me, I think we can use that stubbornness"

Evan and Connor exchange a look, Heidi raises her hands.

"It's not ideal, but if you play it on him being jealous, no one will believe him"

Evan bit his lip, in his head he could see that working on Jared, but-

"People already have their eyes on us, so it'd be easy"

Evan's eyes fly to Connor, and sees a resolve in his expression that surprises him; why is he going so far for Evan?


	13. Οι μυστικά

You may recognize this one, that's because I had to move three chapters due to a scheduling error, and this is where it really belonged. It's a bit different though, because consistency.

As I'm still learning the language, I can only hope the titles are correct, but be assured I will change them if/when I find out any mistake; atte. Skyler Ghesh

Hey! Happy pride!

13\. Οι μυστικά

For the time being they go to the orchard almost daily, and now Connor isn't the only one looking for signs of anything resembling human presence with borderline paranoia, which is good if only because four eyes see more than just the two, and Evan has a ridiculously sharp nose.

There's a freedom to Evan that wasn't there before, he's still cautious in the nest, but now he takes Tera out and shifts to play-fight with her, teaching her how to dragon in a way Connor can't, though he can easily join them if he's in the mood. Evan also has started talking to Tera in draconic, which rings in Connor's ears as something he should understand the way he does English, if not better.

Connor asks, because he sort of gets why Tera thinks in draconic, as animal language is generally easier to kids than human language - mainly due to animal languages being simple sounds -.

"How come you know dragon? Or still know it I guess"

Evan smiles in slight amusement.

"It's called draconic"

Connor rolls his eyes, that's the other thing, Evan is a lot more outspoken now, though he still sometimes trips over himself because he's yet to trust Connor fully; which is completely understandable. The omega starts picking at the grass, which likes to grow just slightly taller around him.

"My mom knew it from her family, because dracon-ism is apparently somewhat genetic, and once my dad was out of the picture, she started teaching me"

Connor nods at this, it makes a lot of sense.

"I guess my dad was the one to pass it down then, my mom is an actual leopard; come to think of it, I'm not sure how she knew I was a dragon in the first place"

Evan gave him a look, but his face changed when he realized Connor was being serious.

"Uhm Connor, you do know dragons are reptiles, right?"

Connor frowns at him, like, obviously he does.

"I was wondering why I had so many scales"

Evan gives him a look but his lips flinch with a smile for just a second, just long enough that Connor knows he found it amusing.

"Connor, how are reptiles born?"

The alpha shrugs.

"I mean, as far as I know they come out of- oh, oh my god"

Evan looks impossibly amused by his reaction.

"We fucking hatch?"

Evan starts actually laughing.

"How did- how did you not- not know?"

"Everything makes so much sense"

Evan just laughs louder, and Connor allows himself a moment to appreciate the sound, and the way Evan's entire demeanor has shifted; now that the idea of Evan bearing ill intent is out of the equation, it's harder for Connor to stop himself from being really gay.

Eventually Evan calms down, but the smile lingers in his face, and it's different from every other smile he's donned before, and maybe Connor feels a little possessive over its existence, and maybe his heart does a flip at the sight.

It's become a lot harder to tell himself he didn't know what was happening. Connor Murphy was slowly but surely developing a crush of Evan fucking Hansen of all people, there was no way around it, but Connor was not going to let that ruin everything.

-.- . / - .-.. -.. . / .-. - ...- / ... .- .. - -.-. ... . .-. - -

Besides the odd feeling that came with having someone other than his mom know about his true animal, there was something else trying to take over Evan; that something had everything to do with Connor. The orchard visits were shorter for Evan now - Connor was an expert at skipping, but Evan didn't want to take the risk -, but now they represented time in which he could be in dragon form without worrying as much, and Tera seemed to be getting better at controlling when she shifted thanks to the constant practice.

There was also the time spent together in school, as Connor stuck around as much as possible - Evan wouldn't let him if his class was on the other side of the school, no matter what the alpha said -, which was a good thing if only due to the fact that Jared was avoiding Evan like the plague, and walking the halls alone as an omega was not a good idea. Was it odd that Evan sort of enjoyed it? It probably was… no, it definitely was, let's be real here; like, how is Evan so… comfortable? With Connor?

It's only been what? Two weeks? Yeah, not even a month, and even a month shouldn't be enough to erase the inbuilt reaction he is supposed to get at Connor being so close, not only because of the rumors he's been unable to avoid hearing, but also, and honestly more importantly, because of his status as an alpha. Maybe being stricken out as useless for the size of the animal he had chosen as his cover had gotten him so used to alphas plain out ignoring him, that it overwrote his natural instincts; something to be worried about, for sure.

Or maybe - and here's the part that Evan doesn't want to think about, doesn't want to partake in this rusted out dance where he makes up perfection in wistful dreams that'll never be, not again, not with the one person that knows his secret other than family -, Evan is been affected enough by the having an alpha not only acknowledge his existence, but seek him out for help, despite and recently also because of what he is; that he's become infatuated by it. Evan tried his best to ignore this trail of thinking though, it never bode well to form crushes on people when you were trying to hide from the government, specially not when - or not even if - they are doing the same thing.

So he just hides it, like everything else in his life, and he hopes this is the one thing he can keep Connor from finding out; the alpha now has an extensive track record for seeing through him, but Evan had good reason to believe he wouldn't take this one thing well at all. It was doomed for disaster, so Eva would keep it quiet for as long as he could.


	14. Προβλιμάτον

You might be wondering if there's a size difference between Connor and Evan due to being different types of dragons, the answer is yes, but how big? Well…

The dragon size scale: Ocean water dragons (actually deep ocean, glow in the dark, giant reptiles are like my aesthetic), most but not all earth drakes (includes shapeshifting dragons, you know, because the earth shifts), fire drakes (there are three kinds, but their sizes are vary within said types themselves so-), nature drakes (woods, forest, swamp and savannah (in that order)), river water dragons, sand dragons, sound drakes (air drake was too much of a redundancy), lake/lagoon water dragons (Nessie if you're out there), lightning dragons (speedy fuckers), and night dragons (the most dangerous kind despite their size).

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14\. Προβλιμάτον

Zoe wouldn't say she knew her brother, not for a while, not since that one time where he threatened to kill her and then pulled himself entirely away by the next day, barely even looking at her; but then something changed. See, Zoe didn't want to say the drugs were a good idea, not when Connor and Larry still got at each other's throats so often; but since Connor started coming back home reeking of ash two years ago he'd been mellower, not with her dad, and not always on school, but in home, when Larry wasn't around, and sometimes if no one bothered him, he would just silently do his thing and keep his distance from everyone.

And now, two years later, he had changed again, this time by shadowing Evan Hansen's every step, and glaring daggers at everyone who looked at the omega wrong. Zoe was honestly unsurprised to see her brother interested in the one omega everyone else ignored due to animal size - a bund of information she had only because the boy hung out with Kleinman more than what was healthy, and Jared was bad at keeping his mouth shut -, but what does catch her attention is the fact that Evan, who usually looked like a nervous wreck, seemed less so in her brother's company; and she's pretty sure that's meaningful.

She realizes why a little latter, the next day, when she sees her brother, who's usually uncaring and brash, hold himself in his least threatening manner as he attempts to calm Evan; until his instincts finally kick in and he pulls Evan to him, the omega stiffens at first but eventually melts into him, and Zoe knows then that the two are either courting or well in their way to starting to. She hopes that maybe Evan will become a good influence on Connor, or will at least bring up a side of him that wasn't angry or unresponsive.

\- -. - - / - ... . / - - ... . .-. / ... .. -... .-.. .. -. -.

Connor has never been affectionate, not really, and maybe that's the thing, because he feels kind of touch starved as he keeps close to Evan in school, is a lot harder now that he's acknowledged his crush on the omega, but it was necessary to keep Jared quiet. It's a good thing it works so well, or Connor wouldn't have any excuses to do it and- and he's going to let that thought die there, thank you; but Kleinman has kept his distance, and there are no rumors regarding dragons in the halls.

So he manages somewhat for the majority of the week, before something changes. Evan gets out of his last class with his face pale, and his breathing coming in short pants, and Connor flounders for what to do, he tries to get him to look at him, to breathe evenly, but Evan is unresponsive; and there's a moment of realistic panic filling Connor, before his instincts decide to kick in and he moves. He tries not to think at all as he finds himself holding Evan to his chest, concentrates instead in how surprisingly well it works, and not how easily their scents have mixed in the air, or the way he can acutely feel Evan breathing into his neck.

It lasts for a bit, way too long for Connor's heart, and still when he pulls away it feels as if it wasn't enough; he shoves that feeling far down, he doesn't need this shit now.

"What happened?"

He's a bit surprised by how soft his voice comes out, an adjective he thought was lost to all the screaming matches, but is glad for because he doesn't want to be the reason Evan has another panic attack. Evan takes a deep breath, and pulls out a folded sheet out of his pocket; it looks more like a poster than a note, and presses it into Connor's hands.

Connor pretends like he didn't just get electrified over touching hands with Evan, as he unfolds it and reads its contents, like he thought it was a poster, one that invited people to contribute into - and here Connor skimmed over only for his eyes to jump right back as the name recognized in his head - 'the Autumn Smiles Apple Orchard revival'.

He looked back up to Evan, who still looked out of his mind with nerves, not that Connor could blame him considering the dread that had settled in his own self. And then the omega closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and gave Connor a frightened look.

"We'll tell my mom, we don't- don't have that much but once she sees she'll be on board, and I'll help you get everything out, they can't find it"

It sounds crazy, but they don't exactly have other options, if they want Tera to remain safe, this is the only way.

"Ok, I don't like it, but ok"

Evan gives him an apologetic look, as if inconveniencing Connor somehow makes his solution something to apologize for, even when he's only trying to save Tera; and that will only ever be good in Connor's book. Still, Connor hopes to everything that the project crashes and burns; it would be a bit before they could move Tera back to the orchard, but it was honestly the best possible outcome.

* * *

I would like to add that Evan has a bush viper head (someone gave me fan art and I must honor them somehow), Tera has a beak (you know, at the end of her snout, this is a thing in dragons), and Connor has the commonly used dragon head.


	15. Κοννορ και Τερα

Exposition, how does it work?

Me, upon remembering that Tera is specifically a fire drake: Connor has burn scars.

Is it two years if the second year is still happening, or… like, Tera is definitely two years old but like, it hasn't been an exact year?

* * *

15\. Κοννορ και Τερα

 _To whom it concerns:_

 _If you've found this note, it means I fell in my attempt at_ _defending_ _the last thing I had, and you have found her. I took plenty of precautions to ensure only_ _a drake_ _like us would be able to find the nest, and I'm terribly sorry to ask this of a stranger,_ _but I have_ _no one else to turn to._

 _Her name is Tera, she's a fire drake she's one t-_

It stated on summer break of freshman year.

Connor, throat still burning from yet another round of the loudest one is right, forget the signs, and ignore the scent of desperation; as if he had found a way to fake his biological reactions for his favor. Found solace in escaping to the only place that had ever felt safe.

He had once upon a time wanted to believe Cynthia to have a good reason not to say a thing in his defense, but he's been exhausted and shot down as actor; as if being a pariah were an option anyone took willingly, or they did, but only after being worn down to nonexistence.

The left over prints of fire would not have warranted even a second glance had it not been for their nature; too deliberate, too contained, and with the leftover scent of fear and consequent anger. There had been a fight here, and Connor felt his feet moving on their own, in the direction the burns seemed to stem from.

There's a silence hanging heavily in the orchard, the kind one associates with a tragedy, that is broken jarringly - as Connor trades deeper into the overgrown greenery - by a loud cry. It's instinct that moves him forward, and guides his actions once he finds her; that's not an advantage he'll count on very frequently.

Taking care of an infant, no matter their species, is messy work, hard work; there are moments where he's oh so tempted to tell someone about her, but there's an urgency to the words she's left with, a warning that sinks deep into Connor's very soul. He thinks of Cynthia, but to get to Cynthia he'd have to pass through Larry, because he doesn't trust her to keep it from him, and Connor has no reason to believe his mother would take Tera in anyways; taking care of a young drake when they're your blood is one thing but a stranger's kid?

The first year is a mess of failures, google searches, and burns; Tera doesn't trust him at first, has no reason to, especially considering he's an alpha, but even when she warms up to him Connor burns, she's only one year old and hardly has any control of her flames. Connor starts wearing long sleeves, and lets his hair grow without really meaning to, but Tera likes to play with it, sometimes it calms her, so he doesn't mind.

Eventually he finds out how to make aloe plants happen, steals what's apparently called an offset, and plants it in the back portion of the building that hides the nest; to keep at hand while also away from the curious infant.

And then he teaches her how to make short flights, how to keep balance on branches, how to camouflage herself, how to sneak, and how to make smoke with her nose; in short, how to hunt and move around the orchard, by shifting through a wide variety of animals that are around her size.

The second year starts with a newfound confidence, for both him and Tera, as she presents him with her first successful hunt; it marks the first time she sees him in his preferred leopard form, and the main reason why he's so convinced she's actually crazy smart, because he swears the look she gives him just says 'That's not what you are'.

.-. .-. . ... . -. - / - .. - .

Destroying the nest is a bit of a heartbreaking process, especially because they only get to keep so much of it as the Hansen's don't exactly have the space for it; but Tera remains surprisingly quiet through it, Evan only translates one line of what's going through her mind to Connor, and for once he thinks he isn't omitting anything.

"She's asking if the bad people are coming back? Do you know what she might mean?"

Connor swallows, remembering the charred note left behind.

"Not really, but I- you said you knew what they would do to us if they found out, or implied it I guess"

Evan bites his lips.

"Only a bit, hunting us used to be considered a good thing"

"It was probably something of the sort, only they never found Tera"

Connor turned to them; Tera had her face hidden on Evan's neck while the omega's entire demeanor seemed to be protective.

"I'm gonna take her to your car and come back to help, is that ok?"

Connor picks up one of the newest blankets and puts over the two.

"Yeah, tell her to keep hidden though"

Evan smiles at him amusedly.

"She says she's not stupid"

"I'm a bad influence on her"

Evan snorts, which is unnecessarily adorable, what the hell?

"Definitely a bad influence"

"See that just tells me she made a sarcastic comeback, I must know"

Evan simply grins at him before taking a hold of the blanket with his free hand and making to leave.

"Too bad!"

Connor watches him go with what he knows to be a lovesick look, apparently he's made an influence on Evan too; and that is a thought that should not make him this stupidly happy.

If the project really did get off the ground, Connor hoped above everything, that they wouldn't ruin the place, so he would be able to bring Tera back, if only to see it once more once she was older. Because if Connor - or Evan now, because the alpha trusted him - had any say in the matter, she would live long after he (they) died.

* * *

Some draconic heads by Strikethedragon who understood exactly what I meant with beack snout: /0215yy8bj402


	16. Οκιακός

Hopefully I'll be able to go through everything I planned on my head.

I picked Heidi's animal keeping in mind Evan's fake animal would have to be similar in some way.

I did my own take on what Tera looks like, so if you want to know what I imagine her like, I could post it and link here? I have to ask permission to the base artist (bc I'm terrible at drawing humans, but somewhat decent at base editing). It's funny because I imply she looks a certain way in the fic, but that's not what I imagine her looking like at all.

* * *

16\. Οκιακός

When she was young, Heidi's mom would tell her how lucky she was to have turned like her father, but would warn her that dragon blood still ran through her veins, and to be ready for what it would mean if it rose up. Her mom had been one of many turned in just the one, spooled caution tale after caution tale, tried to prepare her properly for the inevitable future.

Fate took her away before Evan was born, and his birth seemed almost prophetical for it, but Heidi took all that she was taught, all that she knew, and utilized it to keep him safe. But even if she had stayed alive, Heidi didn't think she would have advice for this situation.

Evan was a smart boy, finding an animal that not only excused him from shifting, but was close in appearance to her own, making it more believable. He kept that lie going for as long as he could before it exploded in his face, and Heidi knew it would eventually; but this was graver than two alphas finding Evan out.

Heidi knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that taking the young fire drake in would be only asking for trouble; but she was surprised by the look on Evan's face, eyes ablaze with a fierce determination to keep the kid in his arms out of harm's way, and Heidi found herself in that look. The girl would only bring problems, that she knew, but turning her away wasn't an option, not when Evan looked at her like that.

So Heidi smiled softly, approaching carefully and looking at hazel eyes.

"What's your name honey?"

The girl blinked at her, glancing quickly at Evan, who nodded with an encouraging smile of his own.

 _"_ _I'm Tera"_

It's been a long while since Heidi last heard someone speak draconic, particularly that young.

 _"_ _Hello Tera, I'm Evan's mom, Heidi"_

The girl lights up in a second, Evan chuckles a little; it puts her a little off balance, the way he looks, holding her like she's precious, and she isn't the only one affected. Though Connor keeps his distance, most likely weary that if he does get close it'll ruin their chances; his face betrays how badly he wants to step in, to join them.

It isn't hard to tell just how much the two care for this girl, and how willing they are to keep her safe and sound; the fact that Connor, who doesn't know her at all, chose to trust her with something so important to him, is a clear sign of how desperate their situation is. She turns to him and motions him to move closer.

"Why don't you tell me everything while we set a nest up?"

Connor gives her a look of thankfulness and relief that makes his entire body sag with him, and finally approaches; Tera makes motions towards him and Evan holds her to Connor, who takes her wordlessly, like this is a normal occurrence between them.

"Where do we start?"

\- .. - . / ... -.- .. .-. ... / .- .-. . / - -.- / .- .- -/.-. .-.. ..- ... / .-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. . / - -... ...- ...

It took a bit, but eventually an old storage room became the space for Tera's new nest, the still boxed contents were moved to a corner of the Livingroom. All while Connor recounted the year taking care of Tera by himself, and then explained the real meeting with Evan while excluding what they both knew really drove Evan to the orchard in the first place; Heidi was bothered that Evan had lied about why he had shown Connor his shifted form, but ultimately understanding of Evan's mislead, as dragon related issues were always delicate things were keeping secrets was unavoidable.

"We're going to need a backstory for her, she can't stay cooped in the house all the time, particularly if she's used to more free range"

Evan finds himself sitting in the couch with Connor, a sleepy Tera nestled between them in her dragon form, and his mom has taken a chair as she sips on some tea she made for them now that work is over with.

Connor glances at Tera, and then at Evan, before he nods.

"That'd be good yeah; I don't want her to feel trapped"

Heidi takes another sip of her tea, the other two cups sit mostly untouched so far.

"We could say she's Evan's half-sister, and explain the differences on that"

"But not the smell"

Evan takes his cup for something to do with his hands.

"Actually, since you will probably end up coming around a lot, I might have an idea for that? It's not- not actually good, forget it"

Connor reaches over and squeezes his shoulder.

"I trust you"

Evan's heart skips a beat or four, and he looks away before he gets flustered and gives himself away.

"Well, you're gonna pretend you're uhm… interested in me, so it makes sense that you would try to get my sister to like you to get on my good side, you know?"

Connor squeezes his shoulder again; Evan brings the cup to his lips and swallows a few times.

"That should work! Now if you don't mind, I have to get ready for my night class; feel free to stay over Connor"

As she made her way back upstairs, to change and grab her things, Connor finally took his tea, drinking it almost nervously as he kept very stiff; eyes following her when she came back down in order to leave. When the door closed he put the cup down and slumped on the couch with a long sigh.

"Are you sure your mom isn't a dragon?"

"She's a maned wolf, why?"

Connor opens his mouth, shuts it promptly, springs up from his position and gives Evan the most 'are you for real?' look ever.

"Your mom, is a maned wolf"

"Yes?"

"As in, the animal that's called a fox on stilts"

Evan flushes.

"Shut up!"

Connor actually starts laughing, which is a sight Evan will commit to memory, even if he's being made fun of. Tera lifts her head to look at him and yawns, moving herself closer to Connor as she curls up.

Connor calms down and softens as he looks down to her, Evan tries not to let out a loud aw at the sight, but he gets all warm and tingly. Evan realizes that there's no way his feelings for Connor will remain a flickering fancy now, not when he's just signed himself up to see him in such a domestic setting.

No, this is different that the crushes he's had previously, but there's no chance in hell Evan will say anything about it, not just out of fear of ruining the tentative comradery they've built over protecting Tera, nor because of his low, low self-esteem; but because this was the wrong time to be talking about feelings. Not now that things were so complicated, and most likely not ever, Connor deserved better than the mess that was Evan, he could have something better, something normal; he was a shapeshifter, nobody would suspect him of being a dragon.

* * *

Hey so, remember that one fanart I talked abt that gave Evan a snake head? Well, the artist provided me with a link, so go show them love: post/174859763366/i-really-like-this-story-called-tera-by; their knowledge of dragon and understanding of my horn descriptions are top tier.


	17. Κίνηση

The plot happens quickly but there's a lot of it, mainly because I allowed myself to experiment a lil, so, there's that.

Every single part of this story is based in multiple dreams I've had since the first one that made the first 10 chapters, so the writing process is me trying not to dream abt it bc I'm afraid I won't remember come morning, and then dreaming about it and somehow keeping the info for weeks despite my ADD.

* * *

17\. Κίνηση

Heidi Hansen and Janis Griffin had become friends back when they first started nursing school, or well, rather Heidi kept her close because her loud personality worked as a great cover, easy to keep to yourself when someone else is showing off. Janis seemed to think Heidi a friend though, or at least someone she could be brutally honest with without facing repercussion for it, other than inside Heidi's head.

Janis had insisted they find mates at the same time so their first pups would be the same age, Heidi met Richard Boone, and Janis met Lewis Kleinman. Richard was a bit of a surprise, a bit of a lie detector, and amazingly, brave enough to stick with Heidi after finding out she had dragon blood; sure, he was a literal dick who ran off chasing after a cocktail waitress just because she was an omega unlike Heidi, but he seemed to have kept Evan's secret safe, and for that Heidi is grateful.

Lewis, on the other hand, is a man unafraid of saying what he thinks, privileged and uncaring how his words sound to different ears, and Heidi knows now just how much of an influence he is on those he surrounds himself with. Lewis has a keen eye for that which does not fit into his view of how the world should be, and his reach is such that when he starts clearly doubting Heidi she panics; he's hard to misdirect, because Heidi feels like poison might as well be replacing her veins with every word she utters in order to fool him, she despises the mask she makes for him, but she cannot face him, not with Evan on the line.

Janis is easier to handle, easier to coax into doing what Heidi needs her to, just the right words, bite back the retorts.

"Morning Janis, how are things in your wing?"

The woman smiles at her brightly.

"You know, very cold and quiet as usual, how about yours?"

"Hectic"

Heidi sits down in the table in front of her.

"Home too, Richard dropped Evan's new sister with me, I wouldn't have opened the door but well, omega instincts are hard to fight against and she's only 2"

Janis gives her the first real look of concern.

"That man is horrible, is better that she's with you"

Heidi gives a fake smile of her own, she's out of practice but the tiredness she carries with her gives her a bit of leeway.

"Makes good practice too, Evan found himself an alpha"

The smile on her face is so fake it might as well be trademarked. Janis had been the one to tell Heidi about Evan's little ruse to get out of shifting, expressing her 'condolences' at the fact that her boy had turned to be such a small thing and how worried she must be that no one would take him; Heidi had just gone along with it, not wanting to ruin Evan's cover, at least it was a good choice of animal.

"That's great, you must be so relieved!"

Heidi smiled, working her way to how she wanted to word the next part.

"Oh almost so, it's just that your boy didn't take it well from what I hear"

Janis blinked, smile almost slipping from her face.

"Jared?"

"Evan says he was less than kind when he found out, sounded almost possessive to me"

Janis lets out a loud laugh, forced in a way that, while Heidi can tell she is faking it, no one else would be able to.

"Well that's just silly; Jared knows he can't court a fox, too small for a Kleinman"

Then, she puts on a smile that's nearly vicious, and Heidi knows her next words will try to make her rise to an argument

"No offense to Evan, of course, he's a lovely thing, I'm sure he'll make this alpha you speak of very happy"

Heidi has known her long enough to perceive the tone of mockery, but that's ok, it's fine because Heidi just put her plan in action.

"Oh, not at all, I'm telling you because I know how much you care about it"

The smile on Janis face was a terrible cover for the shock she had written all over it.

"Well, I have to run; it was lovely to talk with you"

\- ... / ... . -.- / .- / .-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

This was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the single most domestic thing Connor had ever done, and it wasn't even with someone related to him, he didn't think, Tera was a mystery in that area though.

Speaking of Tera, the little girl had wide glowing eyes as she swung her legs back and forth in the kid chair of the shopping cart. Yes, Connor was pursuing the aisles of a supermarket, not only with Tera, but also with Evan Hansen.

Evan, had made a quick list of things they would need, how he knew was a mystery to Connor, like, specifically; as in, Connor knew what he would buy if he went to the supermarket just for himself, Evan knew how to buy for a two years old he knew very little about, his mother, and himself.

Connor, because his mom liked to switch what she was into frequently, had at one point taught himself how to cook the food he wanted to eat; which led to plenty escapades to this same supermarket for ingredients. Evan only knew how to make basic foods, like noodles and eggs, but you couldn't feed a two years old with just that, so they reached the deal that Evan would handle the finding everything they would need, and Connor would cook things to keep in the fridge and freezer.

Thus, here they were, in the supermarket. Luckily for all three of them Tera was a smart girl who understood reasoning, and seemed happy enough just riding in the cart, making faces at Connor.

The alpha was only pushing the cart because it had been part of the deal he made in order to get Evan to accept him paying for the food, the omega had been adamant in repaying at least the portion of it that was for himself and his mother and would not be persuaded otherwise, Connor ended up accepting all the terms because he was distracted by how different Evan was when he set his mind on something; it wasn't that bad though, and Evan didn't ask him to do anything he wasn't already planning on doing, well, maybe sans the cart thing, but Evan was too focused on fulfilling the list to do it himself.

It made all the sense in the world that this is where he finally ran into Alana beck. See, when Connor found out about the orchard project he figured that she would be the one person to ask about it, as she was often somewhat involved in nearly everything of that sort; clubs, committees, if it was morally helpful or school related, Alana was in it.

So, of course, he never found her that day at school but he did now, she was the one to see and approach them.

"Hey Connor, Evan, doing some shopping?"

Connor knew it was time to start the act, people at school had noticed Connor hanging around Evan, but this would be sure to make them aware that he was 'interested'.

"Yeah, the Hansens have a sudden extra mouth, and I wanted some brownie points"

Alana gives him a look, and then her eyes find Tera and her entire demeanor changes into one of intrigue, mind rapidly going through explanations. Evan must have noticed her drawing conclusions as well, because he spoke up.

"This- this is, uh… Tera, my- my uh, half-sister"

"Oh"

Alana's entire body seems to accompany that exclamation, as her eyes now flick through Evan and Tera; she seems to accept it though, as she gives a short nod.

"You two look very similar"

Connor has to fight the urge to look at them to try and find if he can see what she does.

"Thanks"

"You two must be close then, she seems very comfortable with Connor"

Connor knows this is important, but he doesn't actually know how to respond to that comment without giving himself away; thankfully Evan, amazing liar that he's turned out to be despite his obvious telltale signs, speaks up again.

"I'm convinced she likes him better than me"

Connor turns to him at that, and notices too much, similar face structures, similar nose, and a thousand little nothings that seem to stand out now as if highlighted.

"Don't be ridiculous, she adores you"

It's the whole truth, Connor isn't sure how it happened, particularly given how quick it was, but it is true nonetheless. As Alana eventually walks away to continue her own shopping and Evan guides him onto the last few things, and then to the registers for Connor to pay everything; he thinks it might not be the only thing that stood truth in their charade.


	18. Φόντο

Did some beta reading in between chapters for an old acquaintance who has an amazing power to hook me with things I know nothing about, as in, fandoms I'm not part of, but damn it I love how they write.

Alana is a side stripped jackal, I was between that and an African wild dog, but the jackal won.

* * *

18\. Φόντο

Alana thought it was odd that Jared Kleinman had approached her about the abandoned orchard, but upon questioning he had become quiet, almost shy even, and said the words 'it's not for me'.

Maybe it was a gifts, some sort of apology, a way to get back the attention of someone that he had clearly taken for granted; she only decided to help him with the orchard because it was a good thing to do, and because she knew it would make no difference. After all, she had far more reason to side with Evan on this, she knew what it was like to be in his position, and she was glad he had taken action over it, particularly when she saw the results.

Alana had always had an eye out for Connor, ever since they were partnered up on an English project and she discovered just how different he was from the person everyone made him out to be; he made jokes with wordplay, crass commentary on certain lines, and was reluctant to show any will to do things despite doing his half of the work and a little extra. Alana had seen him furious too, as if suddenly burning, pupils slit and fangs bared, lighting every instinct inside her that screamed to run away from danger, though she tried her hardest not to listen.

She wasn't the only one to notice when him and Evan started hovering around each other, sharing space almost constantly, with the telltale tentativeness of something barely begun; it was hard to ignore when the resident ticking time bomb - and here Alana sent a quick apology to Connor - started directing his anger into keeping the quietest boy in school safe.

Meeting with the two in the supermarket was unexpected, particularly seeing them with a little girl; Alana will admit that there was a brief moment where she legitimately though her to be their kid, but she reasoned how that made no sense on the fact that she would've noticed Evan absent for that long - or any other signs of a pregnancy, Alana liked to think she was well informed enough -. No, Tera being Evan's half sibling made more sense; and Connor getting along with her only added to the evidence of the alpha wanting something with Evan.

The two are very different at a simple glance, but Alana can see the similitudes, small as they are, they both probably take more to their non-shared parent though, but they do look related. Tera smells like Connor, even more so than Evan, and though Alana truly believes her to be Evan's sibling, she can tell neither the omega nor Connor see her like that, not really; and that's why she had thought her to be theirs.

There has to be a reason for it, but she doesn't dare ask, simply files away the information and makes a reminder to herself to seek out Evan later and warn him against letting her meet Jared; she didn't think the alpha would give him time to explain, and doubted Evan would be able to put up much of a fight being a fox. It would probably be better to tell him alone though, if Evan wanted to tell Connor then that was his call, but Alana would prefer not to rile him up over it; she had a feeling he wouldn0t take kindly to anyone threatening Tera.

\- .. - . / ... -.- .. .-. / .-. .-.. ..- ... / .-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .

Jared was a little surprised at how many people had shown up to help with their 'project'. Apparently, the orchard was a bit of a childhood relic to about half their school, who would've known?

The most surprising to see join them was one Zoe Murphy, who couldn't have known Jared's true motives, because if she had she wouldn't be. See, since the thing in the orchard, Evan and Murphy had become practically inseparable; which meant of course, that for this first time in years Murphy was attending regularly, and keeping out of trouble, glaring at people in the halls at most.

The change was probably a breath of fresh air for the Murphy family, and Zoe - who definitely had seen the two - would probably have more reason to keep it that way than not.

Jared has to make sure not to make the wrong move around her, he already had one beta keeping an eye on him; he wasn't stupid and Alana wasn't subtle, but she had yet to stop things, so she could do whatever she wanted.

Seeing Murphy around constantly might have been enough to distract other people, but Jared saw more than just that, and he didn't like it one bit. Every alpha instinct within him liked to roar up in jealousy whenever he caught them 'having a moment'.

He knew the plan would take time when he made it, and he accepted that, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Evan looked so at ease around Murphy, still quiet and awkward in all the right places, but now instead of curling on himself he had the option of hiding behind the alpha, and he did; when this happened a few things would follow in motion, Murphy would look at him, turn to glare at anyone watching in the vicinity, and angle himself back towards the omega with a gentleness improper of him.

It was obvious that there was something stopping them from moving forward, and Jared had to thank whoever was in charge up there for whatever it was, because he needed them to take time; none of his efforts would matter if they mated, in fact, it would be plain disaster, because without the ash…

Mating was irreversible; it made it so the omega could only be satisfied by the alpha that had marked them, and vice versa. It was supposed to be the end result of courting, of seduction, of a mutual agreement to tie themselves to one another.

There were cases where it didn't happen like that, where an alpha took an unwilling omega for his own, trapping them; sometimes it happened accidentally, an alpha going on rut close to an omega and them being helpless to stop it, or an omega going into heat close to an alpha and them being unable to stop themselves, or a tragic combination of both. Matings like these rarely had a good outcome, and at least one in the pair grew bitter over the connection; and Jared couldn't risk it being Murphy, alphas were incredibly dangerous when angered.

So Jared promised himself he would step in if he saw them growing close to that, for Evan's sake.


	19. Περιθώριο

I think I've fleshed this out enough now that you understand where everyone that was introduced stands, so obviously I have to add the remaining characters to the fray. I decided to add my wildcard character to this story bc I remembered I possess that kind of power.

Zoe Murphy is a complex character that I've honestly haven't done any justice to; hopefully I can do better with her in this.

Tfw 13 of the completed stories in the ship tag are all made by yourself. Shooting for 14 with this one, but it'll probably be the last one I do on this ship; hopefully it's a good one.

* * *

19\. Περιθώριο

Things had become quiet since the last week of the break, when Connor added yet another scent to his collection, faint and healthier than the last, with the sweet undertone of an omega. That particular week he had stayed out for as long as possible, and kept silent through all the dinners their mom had forced them into having as a family; Zoe wasn't going to chance messing the odd tranquility by asking questions.

Now he was showing to school, not just walking into the building, but actually attending class, and spending the times in between walking besides Evan Hansen.

The idea of Connor having a crush shouldn't have been weird, and yet here Zoe was, completely dumbfounded by the image of his brother acting like a pining alpha, and all around being soft to an omega. What did make sense was that said omega was Evan Hansen.

Evan seemed to be Connor's exact opposite, quiet, kept to himself, didn't stand out, didn't cause trouble; he made for a very stereotypical omega, if Zoe was being honest, but he was also of the maybe two people at school willing to stand that close to Connor for anything other than riling him up. Zoe guessed he was cute for an omega, round face and bright eyes, but everyone knew he was a fox, and that kind of worked against his favor; but considering how Evan affected Connor, Zoe was not going to judge, ever.

Connor is still arriving home later than he should and giving no explanation, but Zoe's pretty sure he's hanging out with Evan, if the way the scent of forest was slowly becoming more noticeable was anything to go by; and if things were normal she would find it weird that he's hiding this fact from his family, but as it is Connor's secrecy is mostly welcomingly familiar when everything else about the situation just off sets Zoe.

It's not that she thinks there's something going on, Evan seems perfectly consenting to having Connor play the part of his shadow, she was pretty sure she caught him actively seeking him out a few times, actually one of said times was the reason why Zoe had learned there was a project to renew the old apple orchard; but it was still weird to see Connor acting nice with anyone.

So she tries to distract herself, because otherwise she'll pry, and prying only ever ends wrong in the Murphy family; and she likes the quiet. She's still weary and untrusting, and she sometimes catches herself thinking that her brother doesn't deserve something normal, resentment burning so viciously on her veins that her scent turns bitter with it.

Zoe doesn't exactly remember the orchard, she was far too young back then, but she's heard the stories, and the world could definitely do with more green areas; she thinks of her mother, and how it would probably make her happy to know she helped with something like this, and she thinks of Evan Hansen, ripping a poster out before walking to meet Connor half way with it clutch tight in his hands. She doesn't stay to see the outcome, and when neither appears at the meeting place later she forgets about it; it couldn't have been that important.

\- ... . / - -.-. / .-. - ...-

There are times where Trevor wonders if he perhaps possesses some sort of magic ability to be on the right place at the right time; other times it's more of a curse, but he's learned to deal with it. It is particularly helpful when taking photos.

Trevor had gotten into photography because of it at first, but he eventually fell in love with the way he could pretend like he had stopped time, captured seconds into pixels. He hadn't joined the yearbook committee as much as Elise had dragged him there for his skills, but then he started talking with the others, and wore his red highlights proudly as a fully invested member.

And then Alexei, Lexi, the sophomore that was far better with a brush than with a camera, who liked to exchange pigments of perspective for Trevor's frozen seconds of reality; told him about the Autumn Smiles Apple Orchard. To them the Orchard wasn't a place; it was a clue, a memory.

"I know it's a lot to ask, going somewhere that's closed off, particularly when there's someone about to take it over, but…"

"You know I'd do anything for you Lexi, a bit of law breaking isn't outside of the realm of possibilities"

They make to protest, then seem to register his words and instead assume a perturbed expression instead.

"Should I be concerned?"

Trevor snorts but shrugs his shoulders.

"Do you want to go today?"

"Yeah, but not immediately after school, maybe once it gets dark, we could shift to cover more ground"

Trevor grins then.

"Sure, it's been a bit since I last stretched these old dog legs properly"

Alexei gives him a very done look.

"I'm gonna ignore that and ask you to meet at mine at sundown before you keep going and I go ask Rene for help instead"

"Ok, no, I love Irene, but that's an awful idea; there's no way I'm letting you do that to yourself"

Alexei sighs but gives him a grateful smile, and that's what counts.

Trevor Fletcher is only looking to help a friend out, to use his penchant for being on the right place at the right time for someone else; nothing more.


	20. Δραμα

Summaries are hard my dudes

Trevor is an Alexander Archipelago wolf specifically (a beautiful black boy); Jared is a European wolf (aka, moon moon); Alexei is technically a leopard (the amount of investigation I did in black panthers is ridiculous considering I only needed their size compared to a wolf)... am I missing anyone?

* * *

20\. Δραμα

The orchard is eerily quiet, the way only abandoned places can be, but brimming with an energy of wilderness Trevor doesn't know what to do with. Alexei shifts first, nighttime making them all but disappear as they take on their panther form; Trevor follows donning in his own black fur, but as the wolf he is.

Trevor bites back a smile as he runs over the old joke about cats and dogs, and the irony of it concerning his relationship with Lexi; had he said anything the beta would've bitch slapped him so fast his head might do the cartoon thing and make a 360°, metaphorically of course, Lexi wouldn't even hurt someone at gunpoint.

They're not far enough from the city that they need their night vision, but it's just more convenient than waiting for their eyes to adjust; being in animal form also serves to hide them more easily in case there's anyone patrolling. There is a heavy scent of ash in the place, and another that Trevor's pretty sure he smelled on someone at school; he wonders if there's a pyromaniac in his school, his nose sharp enough to tell him it isn't cigarette ash, it could potentially be some sort of drug though, Trevor wouldn't know.

There's another scent in the air, something that lights every last cell in Trevor's body, omega instincts tingling with electricity viciously egging him to follow, and with no clear destination given by his beta friend, follow he does. Alexei does not question him, does not complain in any way, shape or form; just follows silently after him as the scent leads him deeper and deeper into the orchard.

Trevor becomes thankful of his night vision, because he would've otherwise crashed face first against a wall; the building seemed to spring out of thin air, even with all the clear signs that it hasn't, that the orchard has housed it for many years. It's hard to describe through his wolf eyes, but he notes some dark spots most likely caused by humidity both in the bottom and top, and the fact that part of the roof is missing, as well as the door.

Alexei enters first, despite being the follower, because Trevor is momentarily frozen by the familiar scent he had caught back at the entrance of the orchard; bitter like biting into a coffee bean fresh out of the plant, but with a chocolatey aftertaste, and the heady unmistakable hint of alpha, accompanied by the heavy scent of ash. Trevor realizes then that the ash scent is from normal fire, because it reminds him of a campfire long killed, and the ground is covered in burnt patches that look suspiciously intentional.

For the strength of the pull he felt towards this place, now that he's inside he feels utterly repulsed, the scent of fresh grass and nature suddenly invading his nose to the point it almost chokes him. It take Alexei pulling an old but suspiciously well maintained piece of paper out of a pile of rubble for Trevor to realize why he's having this reaction.

"It's a nest"

Lexi comes from a long line of werewolves, being the first feline ever, their alpha mom had to take care of them by herself, after his omega mom had disappeared; they spoiled Lexi almost rotten because of it, which Trevor blamed for his friend's felinity. Being surrounded by wolves their whole life meant Alexei understood and could speak their language even when transformed; Trevor and the rest of the Yearbook committee had been studying panther just to surprise them on their birthday, but for now Trevor spoke in wolf to them.

"It doesn't look like one"

Lexi scrunches their snout as they say it, which makes their fangs glisten under the surprising amount of moonlight coming from the missing bit of roof; for a place abandoned as deep within nature as this one, it sure is well illuminated.

"It was destroyed very recently, I'd even say it was done this afternoon, but it was definitely a nest"

As a beta, Alexei is immune to it, but Trevor can feel the presence of an omega here, and omega with a child, one whose scent was far more fearsome than almost every alpha at school sans-

Oh.

"I really need to get out of here before I suffocate Lexi"

The beta nods, and takes full advantage of the fact that they were the bigger animal to carry him out by the scruff of his neck like he's a pup; which is good because he's been immobilized, and that just brings to question what kind of omega nested here. Alexei does shove the piece of paper in his mouth before picking him up, and Trevor would be disgusted if he weren't in wolf form, but he understands why they do it.

\- ... . / - - ... . .-. / - - - / .-. - ...-/ ..-. - / -... .- -.-. -.- ... - - .-. -.-

It was a wonderful time, perhaps the best time she ever had with another human being, and that spoke tomes of how highly she thought of it, because it had also been the worst time of all. It was hiding and fearing for a life beyond her hands to save, it was clever ruses and pretty lies practiced late into the sunrise, it was problem after problem piled into a mountain that would give the Everest a run for its money; it was also a deep and prevalent understanding, a myriad of conversations designed to help them better fit together, shameless laughter in endeavors she hadn't known she could laugh in, and the most caring and selfless alpha she had ever met.

His name had been Leland, Leland Coleman, and Cynthia had all but stumbled into the whirlwind that was his life despite his protests; he had been the only alpha to actively avoid omegas, and that had sparked Cynthia's curiosity like nothing else.

She had tried relentlessly to get the truth of why, but the reality was that she found out accidentally, saw him shift into something other than the wolf he always went to. At first she hadn't thought dragon, terrified when he turned to face her, she shifted and made to run away, leopards were fast, of the fastest animals a human could turn to, but was stopped by a slender white scaly tail covered in sharp looking spines.

He keeps her in place only as long as it takes to explain what he is and why he's hiding it, goes back to human and asks her to give him a head start on police like he's telling himself a humorless joke, like the only possible outcome is for her to out him; Cynthia surprises them both. Everything after that is a constant rollercoaster of gaining trust and falling in love versus becoming paranoid and weary of everyone she knows; and then, there's Connor.

Leland tells her Connor will be like him, she doesn't question him.

Leland disappears one night without as much as a good bye, she doesn't look for him.

Nothing will tell her how to safely bring a baby to the world by herself.

She can't even look at eggs for a full year after it.

She slowly but surely rebuilds her relationship with family, and makes new friends.

She meets Larry Murphy and slowly but surely falls in love.

She does not tell him the truth about Connor, cannot risk her son like that.

She does not tell him what really happened with Leland, for fear it will reveal too much.

She makes up something about a relationship that simply didn't work, but when he asks, she tells him she doesn't regret it, because now she has Connor. Larry does try to get along with Connor, which seems to work for a while, and then there's Zoe, and Cynthia allows herself to enjoy having a family of her own.

Connor presents as an alpha, and shifts into a leopard, but his markings are just slightly off; Larry never notices, Cynthia is glad. But then there's the day Connor gets lost, and she counts her blessing when she's the one that finds him.  
She never meant to hide it from Connor, it just sort of happened, Connor had become a little more detached with each passing year; and then, June of junior year he came home reeking of ash.

Now he once again came home with a new scent to him, but this time Cynthia worried for a completely different reason. It was hard to bring it up with him though, because conversation between them wasn't what it had once been, and because ever since adding the new scent he'd looked far more present, almost as if he had found someone to share his load with.

Cynthia wasn't a fool, she knew the scent of an omega when she smelled it, and it was obvious her boy had found himself one. She wanted to ask, wanted to learn about the person that had him attending school religiously, she didn't know how to; she wanted to ask if they were to be trusted, she didn't think he would respond.

It was Zoe that brought it up, who made the comment at dinner, who received a glare that had lost a good part of the viciousness it once held as he answered defensively. The omega was a male boy by the name of Evan Hansen, and according to Zoe, he was a fox; Connor looked like he would physically fight the next person who pointed that out to him, so Cynthia figured he didn't care.

"You should invite him over, I'd love to meet him"

It's a good thing Larry had to go to work earlier today, because Connor responds with an agreeing grumble instead of the other option. Cynthia makes a plan.


	21. Πόθος

Apparently Hyenas belong to the feliform category and are therefore closer to a lion than to a wolf, I was going to make someone a hyena but wanted them to be a canine, thus, I now possess this info.

Would it be ok if I posted an original work here? Like would you guys read it? It's old and needs work, but I adore it like nothing else.

Me, writing this story: There are not enough fics where Connor falls first… I mean, there probably are others besides this one, right?

* * *

21\. Πόθος

Getting Tera used to living in a house as opposed to the orchard was its whole transition, one that had Evan dragging Connor to buy some essential tools, such as a baby seat for the toilet, and a baby seat for eating; if Connor was bothered he didn't say it. Evan tried not to think too hard on the fact that he'd gone full parent mode, like, movie clichés included; but Tera was a charming little girl, it was very easy to see why Connor adored her.

Tera was also incredibly smart, which became a problem because Evan was sort of, maybe, developing a bit of a tiny, miniscule really, crush on her 'dad'; and he had yet to tell Connor she was calling him that, not knowing how he'd react. He had to, really, or maybe he could wait until Tera finally spoke up; Evan had heard what could only be the sounds of testing letters coming from her new nest once. He doesn't say anything because he knows what she's trying to do.

Connor is coming over practically every day, even if just for a short while, and Evan had been right in thinking that this wouldn't help with the whole liking him debacle; and now he has to worry about Tera questioning his reactions to the alpha. 'Why are you staring at dad?' and 'you look red, are you sick?' being her favorites; and really, Evan is suffering because on the one hand she's obviously worried because she cares about him, and that delights him like nothing else, but on the other hand he has a rough time trying to hide from Connor, so he doesn't have to translate and give himself away.

Connor himself doesn't make it any easier either, he's just so- god! So not what the rumor mill had made him out to be. No, Connor Murphy is a sarcastic little shit that will egg Evan on until he snaps and responds with less than kind words, and smiling after like he's won something.

Basically, he's a horrible, horrible influence; Evan is so gone for him it's not even funny. And the worst part is that he also happens to have a soft caring side to him, which likes to come up around Tera as he dads far too comfortably for someone who claimed to need help; Evan was ridiculously tempted to call bullshit on that one, if not for the fact that Connor didn't have any other reason to have let Evan in on this.

Evan tries not to think about that, about how this all started, what this still is; because it makes the ugly voice in his head rear up to remind him that he's to blame for all the misfortune Tera and Connor had had so far. Sometimes he wishes he had forgone the orchard, chanced the state park again; Connor wouldn't have even known he existed, and Tera would still be in the orchard, and his status as dragon would've remained hidden.

Logistically, he knows thinking like that isn't healthy; but when have his anxiety and depression ever been logic? And it's not like he's gonna do anything about it, not now that he's neck deep into this… situation. It should scare him, he thinks, how nonchalant he's become about the subject of death; and wonders if Connor got like that too.

Evan was half tempted to talk about it, after all it was Connor himself that brought their shared status as suicidal teens to light; but he's also entirely terrified of what would happen if he did. So he just… ignored Connor and any feelings he awoke in Evan; it was easier said than done, but it was better for everyone involved.

\- ... . / -... - -.- / -... . / .-. .. -. -. .. -. -.

Connor has failed spectacularly at the whole 'don't fall for Hansen' gig, it's just- it felt good to know Evan was comfortable enough to be playful with him, to do less word managing, so of course Connor had to get him to express his frustrations too. He claimed it was purely to let Evan know it was ok for him to do it, that he could be human, that he could be angry outwardly, Connor was pretty sure it was healthy; or well, healthier than all that bottling up thing he seemed so prone to.

Connor knew how bottling things up ended, it blew up not only on you but also everyone close to you, it burned your bridges to crisp and caused the people you loved to fear you; he knew he was being hypocritical, what with bottling up his feelings towards Evan, but he honestly didn't give a shit. Connor knew, by the smile that tried to draw itself on Evan's face, that his efforts didn't go unappreciated; keeping his mouth shut was worth it if it meant he got to be the reason behind Evan's smile.

Connor found him talking to Alana in the hallway, the beta looked concerned and seemed to sense him coming, because she lifted her head to meet his gaze, said something else to Evan, and walked away. Evan runs a hand through his hair sighing.

"How come everyone thinks Jared wants me?"

Connor knows Evan is talking to himself, but he can't really resist.

"Isn't that what we want them to think?"

Evan all but jumps in place, even though he should've been able to smell Connor approaching; really, they've spent enough time together. He splutters for a bit before he gets himself back on check, giving Connor a look that has him repressing shivers.

"Alana's smarter than that"

Connor shrugs, he's not gonna fight him on that one.

"What did she say?"

Evan practically scoffs, and Connor does not get a spark of pride at the look, no sir.

"That I should keep Tera away from him, how she smelled too much like you"

Connor bites his lips, and leans into a nearby locker. Evan leans to the one besides him, facing him, and it feels like they're stepping into a bubble.

"I mean, I don't want her anywhere near him; but the way she said it…"

"What if she's right though?"

Evan blinks at him.

"What?"

"I mean, his problem seemed to be with your size, and now he knows so- he could be"

Evan pales a little, and shifts himself a little closer; Connor is used to this, and reacts accordingly, shifting himself to better help hide him. He tries not to think about the fact that Evan must trust him plenty to use him as human shield, or the fact that he wants to bring him even closer and wrap himself around him whenever he gets like this; Connor will not do any hankering, thank you very much.

"I… I really, really don't want him, not one bit"

Connor has to laugh, because the face Evan makes while saying that is way too serious; still, there's a silent request there, and well… it wasn't like Connor was going to let Kleinman have an easy time getting to him, or any other alpha for that matter, but Kleinman awakes the worst of him.

"I'll keep him away"

Evan smiles at him, and Connor somehow manages to smile back without giving himself completely away; honestly, he's so weak for this omega, it's ridiculous.

He bites his lip, remembering what his mother asked him to do.

"I need to ask a favor"

Evan blinks at him, head lolling sideways adorably.

"Yeah?"

Connor bites harder.

"Would you come over for dinner? To my house I mean, for the whole pretense we're trying to pull off"

Evan bites his own lip.

"I would have to ask mom to stay in, can't really hire a sitter for Tera"

"Yeah no, but I'm not sure I could use your 'half-sister' as an excuse"

Evan gives him a pained grin.

"Aren't the air quotes kind of a bad idea?"

Connor rolls his eyes and huffs; Evan smiles at him sheepishly.

"Sitters are expensive?"

"She might invite Tera too"

Evan winces.

"Yeah no, that would not be a good thing"

Connor nods his agreement and then shrugs.

"I'll think something up"


	22. Ανακάλυψες

You know what would be cool? If Steam let me waste my money on the games it offers me, but no! It has to be difficult. I just wanted to play Okami TnT

Me, an asexual: How do you write sexual tension?

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22\. Ανακάλυψες

Trevor watches as Alexei digs around their room searching for something, quietly making sure the piles of discarded stuff don't collapse or get in their way. When the beta finally finds what they're looking for they turn to him and give him a look; Trevor shrugs.

"Instincts are a weird thing my dear Lexi"

Alexei makes a face.

"I'm inclined to agree"

Trevor laughs, and watches as the beta sets an old book by the desk and sits themself beside him.

"What's that for?"

Lexi opens it with care, riffling through the pages gently, as if afraid to break them; the book starts like a photo album but the page Alexei settles in looks more like part of a journal.

"Do you still have that piece of paper we found?"

Trevor nods and pulls it from his pocket, where it was folded carefully, and hands it over without needing to be asked to. Alexei puts the note bellow a few lines of writing, and sure enough, there's a match.

-.. ..- -. / -.. ..- -. / -.. ..- -.

Evan has a tendency to forget himself sometimes, forget what he is, how his body works; forgets that stronger scents and mood changes aren't only tied to his unstable mental health. He only realizes because well, his mind is a terrible thing, and spending so much time with an alpha has its effects; nothing to do with Connor personally, really, nothing at all.

If Evan found himself having very specific fantasies, then that was just the hormones speaking… damn it, this was the worst.

See, Evan was going through the same thing every omega went through once a year, a horrible month-long ailment that didn't actually have a cure, but had a way to be less torturous; only, said method was not happening, no matter what his inner omega wanted. So, Evan was approaching his heat… wonderful.

The thing was, because he was a dragon, and had presented when he was very young, he should have regular heats; you know, biologically speaking. But no, it had to be difficult, heats only started after he hit puberty, and were still all over the place; he still only had them one a year, but he couldn't tell when they would happen.

Generally though, Evan would get symptoms a week before it, and would be able to prepare a bit, but he had been a little… preoccupied, what with the whole Tera debacle; so Evan missed the warnings.

It didn't have to be a problem, heat blockers were easy enough to get, only the cheap ones Evan could get did very little to his sudden arousal; just stopped him from going into the almost feverish state heats drove omegas to, which meant he could mostly go through his day as normal. The problem was, scent blockers were a lot more expensive, a lot harder to get as heat blockers generally took care of heat scent; but since Evan's didn't deal away the arousal, he still smelled like… well, like an animal in heat.

Thankfully, because of his choice in animal, people still ignored him during these times; but now…

Connor's words rung in his ears, the fact that Jared knew never really left his head, but the idea that the alpha could be keeping it to himself only because Evan was now eligible for a mate? Well, it made going to school still smelling like an open buffet of sex a whole lot scarier.

Evan also has to remind himself that Jared isn't the only alpha he has to worry about, not that he thinks Connor would do anything, but the whole ordeal might make things awkward between them; they're both hormonal teens, there's really no way around it. It's going to be awkward enough to tell Connor about it in the first place, but he has to, they're kind of a team now; Evan also wonders how Tera will react, as he doubts she ever had to deal with heats in her two year long life.

The bright side is that he now has an excuse not to go to the Murphy household, as in, one Connor can actually use to delay the dinner by a good margin.

.- . .-.. .-.. / - ... .- - .-. .-.. .-.. / -... . / ..-. ..- -. / .-.. .- - . .-.

Alexei somehow falls into the chair beside the desk, their entire body trembling, Trevor is moving in seconds; he crosses the distance and gathers them in his arms because he knows them well enough by now to know what works.

He has to do a complicated maneuver in order to get into the chair with them and have them curl into him, but he manages; the last time this happened Alexei had decided to tell their mom about their pronouns, and explain that no, they didn't actually know what they identified as yet.

"I have a sister"

Trevor makes his voice soft and comforting.

"You do"

Alexei makes a low pitched sound that's too feline for Trevor to really get.

"They are dragons, both of them are dragons"

Trevor takes advantage of the fact that Alexei can't see him, to allow himself the proper expression at the array of emotions that statement causes him.

"We'll find them"

He doesn't exactly know who 'them' is, who exactly Alexei wants to find; the person they had been looking for in the first place, or the sister they have just learned they have. Trevor has a better lead for the sister, and a heavy feeling that the other person is nowhere near her.


	23. Αναμεταξύ

So, I just re-watched the entire Undertale musical, and I'm EMOTIONAL; anyway, that's totally unrelated to this chapter, I promise.

Zoe continues to be a very interesting character to write for, as I have a hard time relating to her; I can only hope I do her justice.

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23\. Αναμεταξύ

The project is running surprisingly smoothly, and the people involved seem decided to keep it that way. Jared and Alana are allowed to visit the abandoned orchard to take 'before pictures' of the place; which also will serve to help the people working on it to know what and where everything is.

The scent of ash is still there, but Connor's scent has disappeared when they finally go there; Alana was still a very busy person, so locking her down for the visit had been a bit of a hassle. The scent of ash is the strongest in what once was the storage, according to the people that are going to be working there; it all but disappears when you head further in to where the main building was.

Jared curses inwardly at its presence, he had noticed Evan's scent getting stronger recently, and fears what it means coupled with the existence of the ash. It's one thing to think of stopping Murphy from normal courting; to stop him from taking Evan during heat would require literal fighting.

As a leopard, Murphy is bigger than Jared, and as a feline he has the advantage in speed; he also has Evan's favor, and if the omega gets involved things could get nasty. The thought of fighting against Evan has become a lot scarier now that Jared knows the truth, and had a taste of the strength he had; Evan could very easily kill him without ever opening his mouth to breathe fire at him, and that shouldn't be hot, but here Jared is.

Evan Hansen just keeps making Jared question everything he knows to be right, first by being too small to be that alluring, and now by failing to make Jared want to rise to the challenge while being one of the most dangerous creatures on earth. Jared was supposed to want to subdue him, to see the strength and ferocity and find a way to get the upper hand, to be the fearsome one; instead, upon realizing Evan could easily fit his entire wolf form into his mouth in a single bite, Jared found himself oddly aroused.

.- . .-.. .-.. / - ... .- - / .- .- ... / .- .- -.- .- .- .-. -..

Zoe figured she should feel a little worse about the fact that she was practically spying on her brother; even if it was just keeping an eye on him in school. She wouldn't lie, it was weird to be so aware of what Connor was doing; but he had become an entire different person.

Less screaming, less fighting, less threats, less missing school; still the same heavy scent of ash, only now Evan carried it too, and that made Zoe revaluate.

Zoe didn't exactly know how the drug thing worked, but she was pretty sure Evan wasn't the type to do them, and that should mean the scent of ash should be banishing slowly; so the fact that it wasn't and that Evan seemed to get more and more covered in it meant there was a chance it was just part of Connor's natural scent, and that put things in perspective. Without the drugs to easily blame, Connor's aggressiveness, his zooning out, his general sluggishness; all pointed to something being wrong with him.

So Zoe kept an eye on him at school, saw him orbiting around Evan like he was partaking in a weird dance of sorts; where he stayed close enough to the omega that he could easily keep every other alpha at school away, but also at a surprising distance. Being a beta Zoe is immune to heats and ruts - a small blessing in a world so ruled by second natures -, that doesn't mean she doesn't know what they smell like; and Evan Hansen is definitely nearing his.

The fact that Connor would step away from him when his scent has become so potent is very telling, and that just adds to the newly formed pile of things Connor does now that he's interested in an omega that do not fit with the image of him Zoe had built. It tells her, most importantly, that Connor isn't playing, he's not just being difficult; Connor actually, legitimately, cares about Evan Hansen.

Zoe is unsure on how to feel about this discovery; she's glad to know Evan isn't tangled in some fuckery, she might not know him, but Zoe would never wish for someone to have to deal with her brother's bullshit. She's surprised when Connor agrees to having Evan over for dinner, reluctant as he sounds, she doesn't think him the type to boast, or to drag someone like Evan to the mess that are family diners in the Murphy household - especially considering he hates them with passion -; he must have a plan of sorts, but honestly, Zoe doesn't care.

\- ... / .-.. - - -.- -..- / .. - .-. ... / .- .-.. .- -. .-

Alana noticed something off when she had finally managed to get Evan alone in order to talk to him about the Tera thing; he was acting as though he couldn't quite stay still, practically shaking in place as they spoke; only stopping when Alana mentioned Connor. Once she noticed the change in scent, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

Evan had obviously been worried about his approaching heat and how it would affect whatever it was that he had with Connor, Alana knew the subject of heats was sensible enough to omegas to warrant his disregard of her warning; Alana didn't know what it was like, what with being a beta, but she sort of understood.

Society expected certain things from omegas, alphas expected certain things from omegas, and Evan had reason to be weary of his heat now that Connor spent so much time with him; especially because, if Alana remembered correctly, he seemed unable to afford proper heat blockers, and only got away with it due to his lack of popularity.

Alana always thought it was bullshit that alphas only looked at omegas from different animals if they were bigger than them, it was bullshit because omegas were naturally smaller than alphas; but Evan most likely considered it a blessing when his heats came around. She made a silent promise to keep a closer eye on both Connor and Jared, she highly doubted Connor would try and do anything, he seemed serious about courting Evan properly, and that meant not taking advantage of him; Jared was trickier, because Alana could see how on edge he'd become since Evan and Connor started being more obvious in public.

It was the role of a beta, to act as intermediator between alphas and omegas, and Alana didn't want Evan to be hurt, not when he was one of the few people that actually saw her.


	24. Προχώρηση

This is short, but I think it's good and that's what matters.

Friendly reminder that I promised fast pace on the main plot (the relationship is slow burn now, there's no turning back)

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24\. Προχώρηση

Connor doesn't need to hear Evan's explanation to understand what's happening, his nose does all the explaining for him; still, he doesn't stop the omega. Instead he pretends to listen as he watches Evan; face flushed, and hands in constant movement as he tells Connor what he already knows.

He only pays attention when Evan starts talking about blockers, and why he can't get the ones that work properly; like he's dancing around what he really wants to say. There's fear hanging in the air between them, almost unnoticeable with how strong the alluring scent was, and Connor did mean the scent specific to pre-heats and heats, the one that was making him feel woozy.

Omegas in heat produced a very specific sort of scent that attracted alphas to them, better known as 'alluring scent'. There were very few ways an alpha could ignore this type of scent, the first and most common was through distaste; if an alpha wasn't at all interested on an omega naturally, there was little the scent could do to sway them.

The second way was if the alpha was already mated to someone; mating bonds are powerful things that bind two people together permanently - though there are methods to break the bond, they are both expensive and painful -, and therefore, trump natural attraction to someone other than one's mate.

The last, and least common of all due to the fact that it implied effort from the alpha's part, way was to want the omega properly; that is to say, if the alpha is interested in courting an omega, and said omega goes into heat before the courting begins, the alpha might be able to restrain themselves in order to win their trust. It's supposed to be extremely hard, as one has to be into the omega in the first place, and by that rule much more susceptible to the scent than any other alpha; 'supposed' being the key word.

It's not that Connor isn't tempted, he is so very much so, the alluring scent coupled with Evan's growing comfort around him does things to his entire being that he isn't particularly proud of; but it's just… Evan.

Evan who risked his neck in order to hide Tera, who was now housing her even though the Hansen's weren't exactly well off. Evan who had a kind of fire in him that called to Connor, that made him want to go back and forth with him, to see him be so absolutely done with him, and still be hiding a smile.

Evan who trusted Connor enough to ask him for help with Jared, and who was willing to stay close to the alpha even with the circumstances. And the fact that the whole 'let's stick together even though I'm gonna be smelling like a sex fantasy waiting to happen' thing is only happening because Evan's afraid of Jared spilling, shouldn't even cross Connor's mind once the alluring scent filled his nostrils; yet it does, and that's painfully telling.

The problem is mostly that Connor doesn't know how to play the fact that he can actually restrain himself; he doesn't want to come on too strong and scare Evan off, but he also doesn't want Evan to think he isn't interested, or taken. Connor just can't catch a break really.

\- ... -..- / .- -. -.. -..- / - ... . .-. . .-. ... / - ... . / .- -.-. - ..- .- .-.. / .-. .-.. - - / - - -

Alexei knows just as much as anyone else about Connor Murphy, that is to say, nothing other than rumors, and the beta isn't one to trust the rumor mill, relations with the year book committee non-withstanding. They know who Connor Murphy is, he's hard to miss really, but they don't _know_ him.

They can however testify that some of the rumors about the infamous alpha are actually truth, fights in the hallways caught when going from class to class, and disinterest in fitting in shown boldly by chasing after a less than appropriate omega; not that Alexei is judging, they frankly thank their stars that they don't have to partake in the mess that are alpha-omega relationships.

Alexei is only taking notice of Murphy because Trevor said he had recognized his scent while in the orchard, that he only realized who the familiar scent belonged to because it was the only alpha that smelled more dangerous than the omega whose smell had almost choked him at the abandoned nest. Trevor had reason to believe that Murphy had been the one to get rid of the nest, and was therefore their best clue to finding about their sister.

The problem was, neither knew how to approach him about it, Trevor suggested it would be safer, and probably more effective to get to him through the omega he was gravitating around; one of the few werefoxes in school, a most likely anxious boy by the name of Evan Hansen.

Being a member of the yearbook committee meant having a general idea of which people where the hardest to get pictures of other than the school regulated one; if Connor Murphy was infamous with the people at school, Evan Hansen was infamous with the committee. Trevor, as lead photographer, had complained on multiple occasions just how hard it was to get a decent shot of the guy, 'I carried my camera around my neck all day Lexi! It's like he goes invisible or something!' and other variants; Alexei had developed a penchant for noticing Hansen more than they would have otherwise.

Though they fully agreed that Evan would be easier to talk to than Murphy, Alexei still thought talking to the omega wouldn't be an easy task either. No, if they wanted to pin Hansen down they would need help.

So Alexei pulled Trevor aside and tried to convey in their expression the fact that this was absolutely necessary.

"I think it's time we call in the cavalry"

Trevor gives them a look, bites his lips, and then nods with a wary expression.

"I trust your judgement, but you may want to be careful around the power lizard subject"

Alexei doesn't blame him for the way he dances around the actual term, they can't tell if someone's listening at school, and this is a delicate matter. The beta doesn't want to attract the wrong attention; they know they got extremely lucky with Trevor not being immediately scared when the revelation struck, they can't chance it.

Alexei knows how people view dragons; Alexei also knows that they won't be any more merciful towards their baby sister. They might not have met her yet, but they'd be damned if anything happened to Tera.


	25. Φωτιά

Does anyone have good recommendations for fandoms to join? Asking for a friend

There's still a while to this, but like, I need something to move into once it's done.

Short chapter, but oh well.

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25\. Φωτιά

Avalon Müller, Elise Wootton, Gale Abasolo, Irene Ó Donnghaile, Lester Tosell, and Trevor Fletcher; were the names of the members that had welcomed Alexei to the yearbook committee. They were different back then, or perhaps, they were the same, just Alexei didn't know them yet.

Those are the names of the people sitting in his room now, only one really knowing what Alexei had called them here for.

At times like these, Alexei really appreciates their friendship with the omega; honestly, had Trevor not been sitting by their side, ready to buffer as needed, Alexei wasn't sure they would be talking about this with the others, at all.

They go through it carefully, picking at words, keeping anything about dragons out of the conversation; with matters as delicate as this particular one, it is better to keep as little people knowing as possible. They trust this group of people, really, they do, but some things you just don't risk; putting your two year old - if Alexei was doing the math right - sister in the line of fire fell exactly in that category.

There was a long period of silence as they finished speaking, making Alexei feel every inch of his skin acutely, until the youngest of them, Irene, turned to Trevor with a raised eyebrow.

"Should I feel offended that you consider Murphy to be the most dangerous alpha in school?"

Trevor chuckles and puts his hand on the top of her head with a smile.

"You're adorable"

Irene's most outward reaction is one Alexei expects from every other alpha, the red tint in her cheeks is mostly because she still gets flustered whenever an omega gets close to her; Trevor pulls his hand away and leans his entire body back and she bites her lip before looking at Lester.

"Aren't you offended?"

Lester shrugs and puts an arm around Gale, who rolls his eyes but leans into him.

"I don't really care what he's into"

Trevor actually goes a little red at that, which amuses Alexei greatly; they know who Trevor is actually into, but it's still nice to see him flustered over this sort of thing.

"I am not into Connor Murphy!"

Avalon joins the pads of her fingers and places the joined hands beneath her nose.

"But you are into someone"

Elise smacks the back of her head with a huff, and then turns back to Alexei.

"Let's get back on track, Alex"

Alexei rubs the back of their own head and looks at the people in front of him once more.

"I need to talk to him, but he's not the most approachable person out there"

Gale seems to catch on first.

"What do you need us to do exactly?"

... ..- ... .-. . -. ... . / - ..- ... .. -.-.

Heidi Hansen walks the halls of the hospital with purpose, heading to the lab with nothing in her hands for the second time in her life. And though it's been almost two decades since the first one, she knows she will find who she's looking for there.

When she gets there she finds her.

The woman is tall, the way most alphas are, with greyish-chocolate colored hair tied neatly in a bun, a pair of oval-shaped glasses rest in her nose, framing her caramel colored eyes. The years have not been kind to her, and Heidi knows only fragments as to why her eyes look older than life.

"Hello Dr. Chilikov"

She nods her head as if on automatic, which would be amusing if Heidi hadn't come here for a reason.

"I need to ask for a favor"

The woman lifts her head from the machine then, and she must see something familiar there, because she sighs and finishes the test in order to face her entirely.

"I can't just alter blood tests every time you need them Hansen"

Heidi bites her lip, straightens herself, and checks again that they are the only ones here.

"Ignis"

It's a bit of a gamble, and a bit of a dick move, but it isn't a lie, and Heidi does actually hope that her hunch is correct. Dr. Chilikov takes a sharp breath, hand going to her heart; she mutters something to herself in what Heidi suspects is wolf; a resolute look taking over her features.

"I'll do it"


	26. Για το αλφα

It's been a while since I've had fun with a chapter; as in, actual amusement vs having 'fun' over making the pieces fall into place. I don't know, it makes sense in my head.

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26\. Για το αλφα

Connor stares at the box sitting in his bed like it has personally offended him, and considering what it contains, that's not too far off.

Let's rewind.

Connor had somehow managed to navigate through the first week of Evan's heat, learned the exact distance to stand in order to not bother Evan, but also keep alphas away, he still had to get a bit closer whenever Jared appeared nearby, just in case. Resisting the 'thrall' was honestly the easiest part, Connor seemed willing to do anything not to lose Evan; and that was just the thing, wasn't it? Connor wanted Evan Hansen.

It wasn't the most… common sort of want - though the heat had influenced some fantasies that claimed that kind was a thing too -, but it worked; it made Connor basically immune to the scent Evan was producing, simply because taking him now would be breaking the omega's trust, and Connor couldn't risk that.

Connor also had finally found the moment to tell his mom about why Evan couldn't come, Cynthia expressed her empathy, and Connor thought that was that; he'd been wrong. So, here he is now, staring at a box of heat suppressants, 'the effective kind'.

He couldn't even confront his mom about it, and he knew for a fact that she was the one to put them there, mostly because they came with a note in her handwriting, which was why Connor knew the blockers were 'the effective kind'.

Was it fucked up that his mom bought heat suppressors just so Evan would be able to come have dinner with them? Connor felt like it was. Also, how the fuck was he going to explain this to Evan?

Connor felt absolutely mortified just thinking about mentioning the box's existence to the omega, never mind actually giving the pills to Evan. And didn't these kinds of things have to be given by a certified doctor? Connor would check the box for side effects, if he could bring himself to touch the fucking thing.

So, like the teenager he still is somewhere deep inside, he texts him; just… takes a picture of the box in his bed, adds the caption 'why is my mom like this?', and presses send.

Evan responds a moment later, first a line of question marks, then one of blushing emojis, Connor waits for something else, sees the 'writing' in the screen, so Evan must have something else to say.

It takes a full three minutes of the message going on and off, which, fair; before Evan finally sends the last line.

\- . -..- - .. -. -. / -... .-. . .- -.-

Evan: Can you like

Evan: Take a picture of the other side?

Evan: Close enough to read if you could

 **Connor: Uh**

 **Connor: No**

Evan: ?

Connor: I don't want to touch it

Evan: It's not gonna bite you Connor

 **Connor: Wow**

 **Connor: I can physically hear your tone**

Evan: Please just send me the picture

-Image attached- 'Can you read it now?'

Evan: Yeah

Evan: Give me a sec

Evan: Ok, it should be fine

Evan: Hopefully my mom can take a night off

 **Connor: You're gonna use them?**

Evan: Well, yeah

Evan: It'd be nice not to smell like free sex for once

 **Connor: Look at you**

 **Connor: Being all cool about heat scent**

 **Connor: I'm so proud**

Evan: Shut up

. -. -.. / - ..-./- . -..- - .. -. -. / -... .-. . .- -.-

Connor can easily imagine the face Evan's making right now, trying to be angry at him and rolling his eyes, but with that small proud smile he always gets when Connor compliments him, so the alpha doesn't stop doing it. He's a weak man, and Evan is…

The boy that paused everything he was doing to help a crying child.

The boy who willingly followed an alpha he was most than likely warned about into the unknown, because he knew what people did to dragons, and understood why Connor wanted to keep Tera secret.

The boy whose secret was now hanging from a thin line, all because Connor didn't double check their surroundings, didn't notice the scent following them.

The one person in school who knew the truth.

The one person who didn't run from Connor in fear, nor tried to get a rise of him just to see how long it took him to explode.

Evan has become possibly the second most important person to Connor, all through the length of half a month. They are friends, or at least Connor thinks they are, he hopes they are at least friends; and the situation is a bit iffy, between the fact that people are starting to learn about Tera's existence, and with the Kleinman thing, and the project thing.

It's not exactly the time for Connor to be thinking about how great the omega is, not the time to be dwelling on feelings; Connor fears the time might never come, that he'll lose Evan before he can open his mouth. Connor fears that opening his mouth will make Evan hate him more though; so he keeps quiet.

He doesn't expect things with Evan to last beyond this one year, maybe a bit longer, considering Connor will have to find a place for Tera and himself, as well as a job, and he doesn't think Evan will leave Tera without a roof over her head. Connor knows he's only considering letting Evan help with the job/apartment search because he doesn't want to let him go, wants to have as much time as possible.

Evan will find himself someone in college, and maybe Connor will get to see that, to see him find someone that makes him-

Hide.

It hits Connor like a fucking train, the fact that Evan, who deserves nothing more than to have something good, something happy; will have to hide the biggest part of himself from anyone in his future; or chance telling them and… Connor doesn't want to finish that thought, doesn't want to think about that, can hardly come to terms with Evan himself pulling the plug, much less someone else doing it for him.

And he thinks, with ten gallons of bitterness burning through his lungs, that this is what people mean when they say life can be cruel.


	27. Για τα ωμεγα

Me: Fast paced slow burn

You: *confused but still reading for some reason*

You need to understand that since it's ok to hunt dragons, info on sizes would be accessible the way fish sizes are accessible. And I compare them to fish bc I know more abt fishing than abt hunting

* * *

27\. Για τα ωμεγα

Trevor must have done something truly outstanding in some previous life to deserve the kind of power he had; because for the first time since becoming the lead photographer of the Ellison High year book committee, he had an easy time locating one Evan Hansen.

His fellow omega was surprisingly alone, particularly considering the sweet undertones to his scent that spoke of faulty heat blockers - had Trevor been a man of faith he'd have prayed for Evan to have a quick and hazardless heat, like he would for any other omega -; it should have been easy to go talk to him. Trevor really wants to stress that 'should'.

It wasn't much of a problem of how to approach the anxious omega, though Trevor held no illusion of himself being able to do so without causing him some level of distress - how Evan reacted to him was entirely out of his hands -; but rather a problem of Trevor being immobilized by the other's scent.

A scent that lit up every warning sign in the omega's head, telling him to keep his distance; a scent he recognized. It was the same scent as the one in the orchard, only without the possessiveness typical of nests; still the scent of an omega protecting a pup.

Trevor had never believed himself the kind to Sherlock Holmes his way through the information gathered by his nose; but he would've bet good money on the fact that Evan didn't only know what had happened in the orchard, but knew exactly where Tera was. All of this would be great, if Trevor could bring himself to move.

Fear was a curious thing. On the one hand, Trevor knew he needed to walk to Evan and talk him into meeting with Alexei on private, particularly since Tera's safety was in the blonde's hands; on the other hand Trevor wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from Hansen as humanly possible, lest he find himself asphyxiated for a longer time.

Trevor doesn't understand, he should feel threatened by Evan's scent while on school, it shouldn't scare him, not when his fellow omega is a werefox and smaller than him; something doesn't fit. But Trevor will keep his mouth shut, who knows what Evan will do if he thinks Trevor suspicious; he's not risking it, not with Alexei's sister on the line.

Trevor swallows, takes a deep breath, clenches his fists, and crosses the rest of the distance between himself and Evan Hansen in strides. And prays to whatever higher power is listening, that things won't get hairy.

.- -. -.. / -. - .- / .- / -.. .-. .- -. - -. / .-. .-. . - . -. -.. .. -. -. / - - / -... . / .- / ..-. - -..-

There's something to be said about how accustomed Evan had become to hearing Tera's voice in his head, to the point that he's seriously considering having Connor learn draconic just so he doesn't have to keep translating his answers to her; the alpha is smart enough to guess what she says from context clues.

Ok, so maybe the whole heat thing was affecting Evan more than usual, what with the fact that he now reeked of an alpha he couldn't actually go to for relief - and wow, if that sentence wasn't proof of how affected he was - but now Connor had a solution for that; Evan would have to ask him what his mom liked, he owed her a proper thanks.

He busies himself with keeping Tera entertained, a task that was much easier back in the orchard, where he could shift with her; but hey, apparently cat toys work wonders for dragon pups, or at the very least fire drake dragon pups, Evan was really glad Tera wasn't a bigger species of dragon.

He's trying to think on how to teach Connor draconic - that is if the alpha even agrees to learning it - when a semi-familiar scent became close enough that he could smell it despite his own; sweet apple flavored caramel with just a hint of something that tickled Evan's nose, and the scent of the head photographer for the yearbook committee, only Trevor Fletcher didn't have his camera this time.

"Hello Evan, could I talk with you for a second? It's about Connor"

Evan has to remind himself that Jared is the only one who actually knows, that they destroyed the nest the very day Evan found out about the orchard project, that Trevor has no way of knowing, and that the taller omega is probably only talking to Evan this early in the year because Connor has a reputation; it makes sense that he'd come to Evan, because Connor and him were pretending to be into each other - well, there was some truth to that on Evan's front -, and Connor didn't really come out as approachable.

Trevor has more than likely grown used to Evan doing long winded pauses every time he approached him, because he waits with a patient smile as he reasons with himself.

"Uh… ok"

Trevor claps his hands together softly so the sound doesn't startle anyone, and keeps them together in a mock prayer.

"So, I have this friend, Alexei, they really need to talk to Connor about something personal, I'm not privy to the details, but do you think you could convince him to talk to them?"

The first thought that goes through Evan's head is that Trevor is lying through his teeth, that he does know what this Alexei person needs to talk with Connor, but doesn't want Evan to find out; that's not good. The second thing is surprise at how well their ruse must be going that people think he has any effect on what Connor does or doesn't do, that he could sweet talk the alpha into doing something he didn't actually want to; that's technically good, even if the idea of taking advantage of Connor's non-existent interest in him makes him feel wrong all over.

The third thing is 'oh shit, I have to answer', particularly when he sees Trevor's patient smile again; the boy has the uncanny ability to make Evan feel like he has all the time in the world while also being timed all at once, it unnerves him to no end, so he tries to avoid interactions with him.

"I'll try?"

"Wonderful! That's all, have a good day"

Trevor leaves with a kick to his step and Evan has the realization of what he just said, he has to calm down, Connor would probably be able to handle whatever this was, or maybe he wouldn't even go, like, Evan doesn't think Trevor and his friend would be surprised by that. Still, the omega has to talk to him about it, if only to be able to say he did really try; besides, he had to meet him anyway to get the suppressors.

As Trevor rounds the corner and fades from view, Evan's hit with a faint scent of fear that can only belong to the other omega; and he thinks, startlingly, that maybe his first instinct had not been all that mistaken, that Trevor knows enough to be afraid of him.

He wishes, not for the first time, that he could have the freedom of dealing with things one at the time; he already has to deal with the upcoming dinner at the Murphy household to hold the pretense him and Connor are putting on in order to keep Jared from spilling, Evan does not need to deal with a second person knowing on top of that.

Fear is a powerful thing though, and if it means keeping Tera safe, Evan is not beyond using it to his advantage.


	28. Αδέλφια

Should I add translation/pronunciations to the titles, or nah?

The fun thing if that you'll know when the story is ending because the gap between published chapters will become shorter; due to the fact that I'm writing ahead of what I'm posting, of course.

* * *

28\. Αδέλφια

There's a gap between what you're willing to do for someone or something, and what you can actually physically do, like, Connor's paraphrasing here, but basically, sometimes what you're willing to do will hurt worse than doing nothing? And sometimes you make empty promises you can't actually keep, it's just… hard to explain.

Connor can bring himself to shove the box of pills he wants nothing to do with in his bag, and can bring himself to take them with him to school, only because Evan asked; Connor's willing to do a lot for Evan, but he can't do some things. Like, make their situation different, or get rid of Evan's problems, or another hundred and one things that are beyond his power but feel like they should be, as if Connor was supposed to be the solution but failed; he knows, realistically, that this isn't true, but the thought persists.

So Connor does what he can, he gets through the awkward conversation that ends with the box in Evan's bag, and a pill swallowed down in a second, as if it were the most common thing; Connor thinks about the med bottle Evan carries, and about the cast he's had for almost two months now. If Connor could save Evan from himself he would, he'd do everything in his power, because the world needed people like Evan Hansen, people willing to do everything they were able to.

Evan gets an odd look before he speaks to him.

"Uhm, so, this one guy from the yearbook committee, Trevor? He asked me if I could get you to talk with a friend of his alone?"

"And you think I should"

Evan bites his lips and nods.

"It sounded kind of relevant"

Connor shifts in place worriedly.

"Word finally spread?"

Evan closes his eyes tightly for a second.

"I'm hoping to be wrong, but he was… fearful"

"And you think they'll try to warm me about it"

Evan nods again, Connor rans a hand through his hair, he knows, realistically, what their play should be, but…

"Are you sure I should go alone?"

Evan smiles then, the first one so far; diluted as it is through the worry, it still makes Connor's heart do skips.

"I trust you"

Connor thinks there's not much he can actually do for Evan; Connor also thinks there's nearly nothing he's not willing to do for Evan. The line between those two thoughts is often only existent due to Connor creating it, but his fear of losing Evan is greater than his desire for more; and so the line will remain there.

He manages to smile at the omega, pretend like those three words didn't shake him to the core; he's gotten good at it by now, at pretending he isn't hopelessly pinning after Evan like a fool.

"Ok, I'll do it"

Evan smiles again, this time one Connor knows better, not that it changes anything, silently thankful; the bell rings and Connor makes a motion to get them going, because walking Evan everywhere has become nearly second nature now.

\- ... .. ... / .. ... / - ... . / - ..- .-. .-. ... -.- / ... - ..- .-.

Zoe doesn't mean to eavesdrop on her brother, but after seeing him give Evan a box of pills her feet moved on her own; and now she's really glad her beta genes mean neither of them noticed her changing scent, hidden by Evan's more notorious one.

She's … confused is a good word for it. See, if whoever they were talking about had been wanting to warn Evan against Connor she would've gotten it, she had thought about doing it herself before seeing the way they acted around each other, and wouldn't blame someone else from doing it; but warning Connor against Evan? And they both seemed to be unsurprised about it too, like they've been expecting it.

Had she stumbled into some alternate reality? Why would anyone be afraid of Evan? It just doesn't make sense.

She isn't proud of what she decides to do. Tailing after Connor when he follows Trevor fletcher into the room the yearbook committee had claimed when it had first started.

Zoe ducks into an adjacent room before either can see her and presses herself against the shared wall. It takes her a bit before she finds that one spot that lets her hear clear enough to make words out, or maybe their voices have risen, it wouldn't surprise her.

"- just, let you do as you please, it's more complicated than that"

"I told you already, I'm not gonna put her in danger!"

"Look Tera has been through a lot, I don't think I can keep bringing new people to her life without consequences"

Zoe realizes it really was the second because their words get hard to make out after that, she waits patiently, just in case she gets anything else; about three minutes later or so, she does.

There's a noise of something falling harshly into the ground but no sign it was a person, and then there's her brother.

"That fox is ten times the omega you are, and I'm not gonna sit here listening you mock him"

She's moving then, knowing Connor well enough that she predicts him exiting the room with an angry stride; she's a bit impressed though, at how clearly Connor has fallen, because he can only have been talking about Evan just then.

She catches him in stumping through the hall and runs after him.

"Connor!"

"Not now Zoe"

"Who's Tera?"

He stops dead on his tracks and whirls towards her, he has his leopard eyes on, and she subconsciously takes a step back. And then there's Evan, who appears at the end of the hall with and pales at the sight of them; he hurries over and Zoe surprises herself by how relieved she is to see that, still she asks again.

"I heard you talking to those guys in the yearbook committee, who is she?"

"Who's who?"

Evan has finally reached them, and it's amazing how Connor changes with his presence, his eyes go back to normal though he's still clearly angry, but his body becomes a little less tense. Zoe directs the question to Evan.

"A girl named Tera"

Evan blinks at her, frowns, and looks at Connor.

"Why were you talking about my sister with the yearbook committee?"

Connor lets out a long sigh and turns to him.

"I'll tell you later"

Evan nods and turns back to Zoe.

"Uhm, Tera's my half-sister from my dad's side; he left her with us back in the break"

The way he says it it's obvious that he doesn't like talking about it, Zoe can't really blame him, and by the way Connor looks, it's obvious he knows the whole story behind it.

"Can I see her?"

Evan winces.

"Uhm…"

Zoe remembers what Connor has said, and now that Evan looks like he doesn't know how to decline without it coming out as something weird, she starts pulling the pieces together.

"Just a picture would be fine"

Evan looks a bit surprised, and then looks at Connor, who flushes and groans before digging his phone out, the smile he gets tells Zoe he knew the alpha would have a picture, and that's kind of adorable.

Connor gives her the phone with a warning look, Zoe rolls her eyes and looks at the screen; in the picture Evan is sitting crisscross on the floor, hands together in front of his mouth trying to hide the fond smile he's bearing, in front of him, copying his position is a little girl that can't be older that two, and Zoe can't help but smile herself.

"She's so cute!"

Connor snatches the phone from her.

"Yeah, yeah, she's a charming little shit"

Evan chuckles and gives him a look that makes Zoe feel like she's intruding a private moment.

"Don't listen to him, he adores her"

Connor goes red to the tip of his ears, and Zoe is living for this.

"Oh, does he?"

"Shut up! Come on Evan"

He grabs the omega by the good arm and pulls him, and he must not be doing it very hard because Evan walks backwards with him instead.

"Bye Zoe"

He waves and finally turns to let Connor take him away, Zoe smiles until they disappear from view. It's clear, from what she's gathered, that Evan's sister didn't have a good life before getting into the Hansen household, and for some reason the guys at the yearbook committee are interested in both her and Evan; Zoe thinks there's something big going on beneath her nose.

She decides… not to involve herself.


	29. Οικογένεια τις Τερα

Can you tell who my favorite character to write for is? Like, I feel connected on a spiritual level with this asshole, so, of course, I must utilize that fully. No, I'm not talking about my OCs, after creating 200+ of those I've learned how to distance myself from them.

Gods, I'm old.

* * *

29\. Οικογένεια τις Τερα

Trevor isn't at all surprised when both Evan and Connor appear in front of him, Connor glares at him.

"Hansen says you wanted to talk with me?"

Trevor frowns, that's odd, but he's not one to judge, if the alpha wants to do surnames Trevor won't stop him.

"Not me exactly, just… come with me?"

Murphy looks at Evan, who gives him what probably is a reassuring smile, before taking a literal step back.

"I'll wait for you here"

Murphy nods and turns back to Trevor, one eyebrow raised, he's not too fond of the implicit command, but beggars can't be choosers, and Trevor needs Murphy to follow him. The omega shuts his eyes tightly as he turns around and starts leading Murphy through the halls, reminding himself why he's doing this.

When they get to the room Alexei is already waiting, hair tied into a messy bun to point at how stressed they are, which has the dyed-blonde and the dusty brown locks mix up oddly.

"Do you want me to stay?"

Alexei nodded and Trevor crossed the room to sit beside them, Murphy drops in the chair facing them both, looking ready to leave.

"What do you want?"

That was fine, they were expecting aggression, Trevor watched Alexei take a deep breath and go into character.

"I found something that I know is yours; a note of sorts, Trevor recognized your smell on it"

Murphy arches an eyebrow and twitches his mouth into a scowl.

"So?"

Alexei pulls out the battered note, and the book they had compared it with back when they first found it.

"The penmanship is identical to that of my missing mom, and I want to ask you something about its contents"

The way Murphy's face pales as his eyes fall on the note is, considering the situation, very reassuring.

"Where did you find that?"

Trevor scoffs.

"Where do you think?"

Alexei shoots him a look and he shrinks like a child who's been told off.

"I found a lead to my mom that took me to where the nest was"

Connor mutters what has to be a curse word to himself.

"Look, I don't know what you read there but-"

"I'm not gonna hurt her! She's my sister, she's all I have relating my mom"

Murphy looks like having to deal with this physically pains him for a good moment before he sighs, runs a hand through his hair; the alpha seems to finally collect himself enough to give Alexei a dead-pan look.

"I can't just, let you do as you please, it's more complicated than that"

Alexei lets a hiss coax their words.

"I told you already, I'm not gonna put her in danger!"

Murphy is unaffected, if his less than impressed look and same tone are anything to go by.

"Look Tera has been through a lot, I don't think I can keep bringing new people to her life without consequences"

Alexei bites their lip but nods, Trevor isn't as easily subdued.

"What about Evan Hansen?"

He watches Murphy tense up as expected, but he seems to keep himself from blowing up just yet.

"He knows, if that's what you're asking, he found her while she was shifted"

Alexei taps his fingers on the table without any particular rhythm.

"Is he more trustworthy than me? Or are you just biased?"

Murphy huffs and crosses his arms.

"I don't think we have to prove our worth to you, we're the ones keeping her safe"

Alexei looks like they're gonna snap at him, and that can only end badly, so Trevor shoots for a more subtle approach.

"Must be hard, a fox caring for a dragon, quite the size difference, not to mention the language barrier"

Murphy stands up abruptly, knocking over the chair he'd been sitting on, his eyes have changed, pupils slitting and irises almost glowing for all the good the light is doing; Trevor can't help but compare them to Alexei's eyes when shifted, after all, they are both technically the same animal. Technically, but Murphy's eyes aren't cat-like, they're colder, fiercer, and his snarl is different too, a little more like a hiss and way less cat-like; and he does his best not to show his increasing fear at the realization this comparison gives him.

"That fox is ten times the omega you are, and I'm not gonna sit here listening you mock him"

And with that, he promptly leaves the room; the moment the door slams to mark his exit, Alexei slumps in their chair.

"Jesus, no wonder you said he was the scariest alpha, I felt like I was in front of something ten times stronger than me and we're technically the same animal"

Trevor licks his now dry lips.

"I, uh… I think your sister is being watched over by two of her kin"

"That's nice"

Trevor gives them a look, Alexei looks right back, only for their expression to change when Trevor's didn't.

"That… complicates things"

Trevor can't help but laugh.

"Yeah, it really does"

.-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. . /+/ - .. - . / ... -.- .. .-.

It probably said a lot about Connor that he so easily accepted the Hansen household as a safe place. He didn't like thinking about it too hard, so he busies himself with cooking for the three of them; Heidi has an extra shift and Connor will take any reason to stay here a little longer.

After recounting the conversation he had with Tera's sibling - however they were called - to Evan, the omega had agreed with his decision that it had to be done carefully; Tera seemed to still be struggling to fully trust Heidi, always hiding behind Evan, or Connor if he was there when she arrived. There was probably a story there, but it wasn't one she would talk about, Evan seemed reluctant to insist too much, which Connor understood.

Seeing Evan interact with Tera was not helping the whole 'get over Evan Hansen' plan, in fact, it only made things worse for Connor, who had a folder's worth of photos with the two of them, his favorite being one where the two were asleep in a pile on the couch of the Hansen household, Evan curled around a shifted Tera protectively; it was directly after the picture he had shown Zoe, and was why he took the phone before she could scroll to it. Was it a bad idea to have pictures of Tera in her dragon form? Yes, but that didn't stop Connor.

If Connor glances to his left he can see Tera swinging her legs back and forth in her 'food chair', Evan is playing with a paper napkin, and it would be a common occurrence, a scene that's become their routine because Heidi is a busy woman, and Connor is trying to stay in Tera's life as well as his growing friendship with Evan; nothing extraordinary to be said, and then…

"Vanhan, can I have some water please?"

Connor is glad he had to turn the fire off previously, because he jumps to attention at the new voice, and turns to watch Evan stand up, get Tera's drinking cup from the cupboard, then to the fridge for the water, and serves Tera. Then Connor gets to see her taking the cup, and her lips are the ones moving.

"Thank you"

He blinks a few times and then asks, because what else is there to do.

"Vanhan?"

Evan looks up, entirely flustered for a whole second before he frowns, looks at Tera, then back at Connor, and then seems to have an epiphany.

"Oh my god"

Connor, frowns, and then makes sense of what just happened.

"Holly shit"

Tera looks between the two of them and starts laughing, which is fair, they probably look ridiculous, Evan follows along after a beat, and once Connor realizes the full hilarity of the situation, he can only join them.


	30. Νοικοκυριό

Honesty hour: I write a lot of concerning smut for someone as asexual as I am, like, boy howdy! Is it bad! Borderline questionable even, I feel like I might have a serious issue.

Evan and Connor are high-key constantly checking with the other, working as a team, through all of this; and that has little to do with their romantic feelings towards each other. This has been a PSA.

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30\. Νοικοκυριό

Evan knew, realistically, that the imposing building in front of him, was just that, a building; nothing to be scared of. Or maybe it wasn't the building that he was scared of, but the people inside it; that was trickier to deal with.

His mom had finally managed to get a free night at the hospital, and had definitely been home to look after Tera when Connor came to pick him up. So at least that part was taken care of; now all that was left was meeting Connor's parents.

Evan didn't think there was a possibility of him not being nervous about this, about meeting Larry and Cynthia Murphy for the very first time; he felt a little better at the fact that Connor looked just as nervous as him.

They stood in the sidewalk after Connor parked the car; side by side as they both stared at the two-story 'American dream' house in front of them, picket fence included. Evan watches Connor breathe heavily and reach for him without looking, so he joins their hands together, takes a deep breath of his own, and lets the alpha guide him inside.

Sometimes, when you're nervous, it's really easy to notice things, like the fact that as soon as they're through the door the floor has stone bricks and there are shoes on one side, a small shelf holds slippers for the guests. Connor, surprisingly, takes the time to take off his boots and put on a pair of grey well-used slippers, and hands Evan a pair of black ones in similar condition when he follows the alpha's lead; they have to let go of each other as they do this, but Connor is quick to re-take Evan's hand.

There's a small step dividing the entrance from the rest of the house, as marble tiles take over the floor, Connor only lets them linger long enough for Evan to glance left at the living room with it's expensive looking carpet and magazine-worth furniture; there's even a fireplace under a wide-screen TV, which Evan thinks is a bit of a fire hazard but what does he know?

Evan thinks his room could fit in Connor's stairs, he can see the marble poking out beneath the pristine carpet, and he feels bad for whoever has to clean this place, because there's no way the Murphys are doing it themselves.

The second floor is probably mostly filled with rooms, Evan will never know because Connor pulls him to the only one he can actually see into due to the clear lack of a door, he can tell even from the distance that the room belongs to the alpha. Getting inside only proves this further, as Evan takes in what probably is the cheapest furniture in the entire house; Connor does have a queen sized bed, but it's clearly old and almost similar to the one Evan's mom has in their house, there's posters hung from the grey-painted walls, a bookshelf that's way too full, and two adjacent doors.

"One is a walk in closet, because of course it is"

Evan startles at the sound of his voice, looking up at Connor who0s giving him a unamused look; the omega feels his cheeks warm, so he looks away.

"I keep all the colorful shit my mom bought me in the very back together with my heterosexuality"

Evan snorts at that, looking back at Connor, who smiles at him and lets him go to go flop into the bed; Evan opts for the chair that faces a cluttered desk, and is amazed at how soothing it is to be here, in a place that is so unmistakably Connor's.

Connor turns in bed to face him, and Evan tries to pry his eyes away from him so to not be caught staring, before he manages to gather the courage to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

"What are we telling them?"

\- ... . / -.-. -.- -. - ... .. .- / - ..- .-. .-. ... -.- / ... - ..- .-.

When Cynthia got back from the supermarket, after buying what she would need for dinner that night; she was quick to notice the scent of an omega. She smiled to herself as she went to the kitchen to put her purchases away.

Getting the suppressors had been a bit of a risky play, and Cynthia had been very relieved when it didn't end up on a screaming match, but she needed to get a better grasp on the boy who had Connor so enamored; plus, she figured the omega would most likely appreciate them.

As she's putting things into place the door opens and closes, and after a few minutes Zoe appears in the kitchen.

"Oh"

Cynthia looks up to see her confused expression.

"What's wrong sweetie?"

Zoe crinkles her nose.

"It smells sweet; I thought you were cooking already"

Cynthia chuckles and shakes her head.

"I think you should ask your brother about the smell"

"Ew! Mom!"

Cynthia chuckled again once she saw her daughter's face; Zoe rolled her eyes and shifted her guitar case and bag into a better position before striding away from the kitchen.

Eventually she ventured upstairs to greet the omega had her son so besotted, finding Connor sitting crisscross on his bed besides a smaller boy, their hands joined together; it takes her a second to remember his name.

Evan has short blond hair, enough color to his skin for it to be clear he likes the outside but not for sun tanning; he's wearing a polo shirt and kakis, and for some reason, seems to have a distinct contrast with Connor.

The omega boy must sense her because he's looking up at her before she's had the chance to knock on the door frame; she still does this, as Connor seems unaffected as per usual.

Connor looks up at her, rolls his eyes, and makes a disagreeing sound.

"Hello mom, this is Evan"

Then he turns to the omega and it's almost jarring to see how much his expression changes, even his voice takes on a softer tone.

"Evan, this is my mom"

Evan shifts in place and Cynthia notes the cast embossed with Connor's name, like an unofficial claim.

"Uh, hi- hi Mrs. Murphy"

It's only then, as she tries to test the waters by seeing how he's reacting, that she actually pays attention to the scent; like stepping foot into a forest untouched by man, like wilderness and like danger. That's what drives it home, that sense of threat he irradiates unconsciously, the one so deeply ingrained into his nature, he's unaware of its existence, only Cynthia is new to it.

Now, Cynthia Murphy might only have had two meetings with dragon shifters other than her son - first being Leland, of course -, but there was something eerily particular about their scent, and as an omega Cynthia could easily discern it. So she had known, that day two years ago, that the scent of ash that now clung to Connor wasn't from any drug, but from a person; and she knows now that the omega Connor had brought to their home, doesn't actually shift into a fox.

She says none of this things, and hadn't said them, because she knows what it's like hiding a dragon, and she doesn't want to make it complicated, not when the omega shared the ash scent with Connor, and in him it's much easier for Cynthia to pick up 'small child'. They are hiding a pup, and Cynthia doesn't know how to help without having to deal with a second Leland; without it ending in Connor disappearing without a trace.

Instead she says what is expected of her.

"You can call me Cynthia sweetheart"

Then with a well-practiced smile, she adds.

"Do you have any allergies I should know about before I go start dinner?"

The omega gives her an unsure look, Connor instinctively glares at her as he moves himself just slightly closer.

"I uh… don't have- have any"

"Perfect! I'll leave you two alone now"

Cynthia leaves for her own room, there's still time before she needs to go down and cook, she makes a decision, digging into the depths of her walk in closet, and pulling out what might become her trump card. She might not get completely involved immediately, but she wants to get in somehow; and if she can't approach Connor, then that leaves Evan, so she has to be careful about things.

She didn't have any help back then, no adults she could go for help or advice, or simply someone to talk to without fear of repercussions. She will do everything in her power to keep Connor from that.


	31. Απόδειπνο

Got back into listening to podcasts and watching lets plays, that plus the classes mean that I'm all over the place; and to be completely honest, I'm kind of tired of this story?

Like, I love it, don't get me wrong, and I will finish it no matter what (while trying my damnest to make it good, bc fuck it I will go out with a banger). But I'm just,,, not feeling it like I used to, you dig?

* * *

31\. Απόδειπνο

Had Evan not had very prominent anxiety, he would have probably been a theatre kid. So, it started like this:

Back when his parents were together, and going to plays was a feasible occurrence, Evan had been secretly blown away by what he saw; secretly because it apparently wasn't something for boys, even though there had been boys acting, but little Evan knew better than to bring that up with Mr. Kleinman.

Evan was only reminiscing about this because thinking of his current situation as playing a part made things slightly easier to deal with, and he would take anything that provided him that. The fact that the table looked like something out of a TV show also helped the illusion.

The Murphy family themselves was… tense, as in, Evan felt like it was only a matter of time before something blew up, which was, very unnerving. As expected, Mr. Murphy sat at the head of the table, at his right sat Mrs. Murphy, who though clearly affected by him, was subtle about it, besides her was Zoe who looked like she'd rather do anything else, and that resonated with Evan right now; Evan was sat beside Connor on the left side, acting as a divider of sorts between the man, and a very tense alpha.

The omega doesn't think he'll ever refer this particular moment as the ideal situation, and yet it wasn't the senior alpha that made Evan join the game of 'everybody tense'. Like, realistically speaking, Evan would've been playing the forth mentioned game regardless of what the situation in the Murphy family was like; but he was particularly submerged due to his near certainty that Mrs. Murphy had seen through him.

Isn't it crazy that Evan has to specify what he means with that though? That the dragon situation has gotten so convoluted in such a short time? And Maybe Cynthia Murphy did find out about that too, but Evan was somehow more worried about a more trivial thing here. See, Evan had this maybe kind of big crush on Cynthia's son, which Connor seems unaware of thankfully, but that could easily change, because to Cynthia Murphy the closeness between them meant something other than what it really meant.

How to tell the mother of the boy you like not to pass the word to him without letting her know his 'interest' in you is a ruse? Because that was what this was, what it would always be, just an act. A beautiful lie Evan should've known better than to fall for, because Connor has a chance at a future and Evan does not; not in the way he yearns for.

He chose right picking a fox as he wasn't expected to shift anymore, but he also doomed himself, because no one wanted an omega werefox; but he couldn't tell the truth, because then his life would be on the line. And no matter which one he went with, people would always see his animal first, they'll never see him.

-.-. ... .- -. -. . / .-. - ...- / ... -.- .. .-. / - .. - .

Connor did try to eat what was on his plate, though he would've preferred anything else, and by the look on Evan's face that decision was shared; but there was little that could distract him from the feeling of pure dread. It hadn't occurred to him that Evan had never been witness to one of his outbursts, not fully; and that was terrifying.

Connor didn't want Evan to see him like that, because there was no way the omega wouldn't be scared by it; if Evan was scared of him then he would run at the first chance that appeared and Connor…

Connor knew it would happen eventually, that Evan would never stay with him, but Connor didn't want to lose him to his anger, he wanted to still have some part in the omega's life, even if it was only as someone to go to when everything had fallen apart. The alpha wanted to be a choice, even if it was the last one.

Connor felt something bump his leg, the contact bringing him back to the present, where he found himself glaring at the plate while clutching the fork; he glanced to his left and met with lake green eyes for a second, and then took another bite of his food, returning the bump as a way of thanks.

Then the questions started.

Connor answered robotically, barely looking up from his plate, because he knew if he did Larry would be sending a challenge his way, and that would be the beginning of the end. He presses his knee against Evan's when he stutters through the first question, and leaves it there for the remainder; it seemed to work somewhat, though Connor couldn't blame Evan for being tense, that was all anyone ever was during dinner here.

Sometimes Connor wondered why his mom even tried.

... - / - .. .-. . -.. / .. .-. - / -.. - .. -. -. / .. - / - .- .. -.-. .

Cynthia wouldn't say he hadn't expected it, really; after all, Connor had never done anything to stop them from thinking he was drugging himself. Cynthia knew better, of course, but she couldn't say anything to Larry, because to do so she would have to tell him everything, and that wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

She loved him, she really did, but fear changed people; it was safer for him to not know. Still, seeing the way Connor reacts to a question not directed at him but meant for him hurts, especially when it's clear he's been trying to avoid a confrontation tonight.

"So, Evan, is my son giving you drugs?"

There's a high pitched sound of a fork scratching the plate wrong, and then there's wood scrapping against wood, silverware falling into the table, and Connor leaves without a word; Evan is quick to follow, with an apology to Cynthia and a harsh look to Larry, and Cynthia goes after him.

She manages to catch him before he reaches the stairs, and they watch together as Connor disappears into his room, probably to hide behind one of the doors he still has if the sound of wood hitting concrete is anything to go by. Evan makes a noise that just confirms everything for Cynthia, but she ignores its non-foxlike nature a little longer.

"It's best you let him cool down a little sweetie"

The omega looks like he wants to fight her on that, almost desperate to go after Connor, but she smiles sweetly at him.

"Connor seems to like you a lot; I don't think he'd take it well if he hurt you on accident"

Evan gives one last worried look to the room, then bits his lip and nods, Cynthia lets go of his un-casted arm.

"I uh… I get it but… I don't want him hurt either? So ah, I need to- need to go there?"

Cynthia faltered at that, and stayed put as Evan turned again and climbed the stairs, entering Connor's room. She felt relieved, as if a weight have been lifted from her, and found herself smiling as she made her way back to the dining room to join the rest of her family.


	32. Σχέσες

So, I'm binge re-watching Durarara, you know, bc I'm like that TM, also getting up to date with MBMBAM and TAZ; and waiting for Check! Please. And I guess that says something abt my tastes, but fuck if I know what exactly.

Anyway, here's wonder wall.

* * *

32\. Σχέσες

Evan whirls around the room, using his nose to direct him to the door that connected with a bathroom, Evan approached carefully, noting there was a lack of light under the door, and knocked. All he got was a waring growl, which he answered with a decided trill before he let himself fall against the door into a sitting position on the floor.

He could feel Connor on the other side, could feel his weight on the wood against him, and heard his breath catching sadly.

Evan doesn't know what to say, can't even find out what state the alpha is in, and has to go on how his breath sounds through the wood. Evan needs him to open the door, but that's not happening until Connor calms down, the alpha won't allow it; so Evan tilts his head back, pressing it against the door, closes his eyes and turns to nature.

It is a dangerous thing to do, using scent to coax someone into feeling something, it can and will often backfire on you; but Evan doesn't know what else to do. He hears a soft thud behind him, and the scent of chocolate covered coffee beans joins his grass dew and pine needles.

Relief is a good way to call the array of emotions Evan feels when that happens, especially when he hears shifting on the other side after a few beats and the bathroom door opens; he rises to his feet and moves before he can overthink it. Connor's breath hitches, but he still curls himself around Evan, practically clinging to him, not that the omega minds.

It's nice, being this close, Evan feels Connor's weight acutely, but that's fine, because like this, he can at least make sure the alpha is… ok. They are both shaking, he realizes, and decides that the hug was the right idea if only for that; that it was something they both needed.

\- .. - . / ..-. - .-. / - - .-. . / .-. .-.. - - / .- -.. ...- .- -. -.-. . - . -. –

The yearbook committee was a very beta influenced group, that was to say, it was formed by 7 people, out of which, two were omegas (Gale and Trevor), two were alphas (Lester and Irene), and the remaining three were betas (Elise, Avalon and Alexei).

Elise, Avalon and Trevor had known each other practically since they were born, and were the oldest of the group, being all seniors. Lester and Alexei were juniors, and shared most of their classes, though Alex had only fully joined that year.

Gale and Irene were the youngest, being freshmen, and actually got along pretty well with each other, something that had caused a bit of problem when Lester started circling the omega; the good thing about having three betas was that conflict was often resolved quickly and effectively.

Elise and Trevor were what one would call best friends, though Trevor cared deeply for all members of the club, some in particular; so it wasn't odd to see them hanging out outside of the committee. However, there was a little more to this particular encounter between the two.

Trevor slid his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, the temperature had been decreasing slowly over the last few months; and gave the girl an inquiring look.

"So, what did you find?"

Elise lifts the right corners of her mouth, revealing clenched teeth.

"You're not gonna like it"

How long can a secret be kept as such? What if it isn't a secret exactly? How long can you keep something from someone? There are a few things to take into account.

Connor and Evan didn't have any interest on the orchard project beyond the fact that it threatened Tera's safety; though Connor did possess some level of curiosity towards the motive behind it. He found out, via Zoe talking about the project at home, that it was mostly formed by people who considered the orchard an important place and wanted for it to go back to its glory days; so he ignored it, it was just bad timing.

But Connor and Evan weren't the only ones involved anymore. Alexei wanted to keep their sister safe, and for that they had asked the remaining members of the yearbook committee to help them investigate the people who were taking care of her as well as those around them.

"You know Jared Kleinman?"

Trevor gives her an incredulous look.

"Isn't our job to know everyone"

Elise points her finger at him threateningly.

"Don't be a smartass with me Fletcher"

Trevor raised his hands in mock defense.

"So? What about him?"

"He's the one who started the 'autumn smiles apple orchard revival' project, remember?"

"Of course, it was why Lexi decided to finally go to the orchard"

Elise smiles softly.

"This might just be me overthinking, but isn't it weird? That the project would start when it did?"

Trevor seems to pause, blink, and the he snorts, which startles the beta almost comically.

"Oh gods, Eli, you sound like something out of an anime"

The beta puts a hand in her forehead, massaging her brow.

"I'm just saying that I think he's involved, coincidences don't just pile up like that"

"Fair"

Elise shrugged.

"I also had a question"

Trevor made a humming sound at that, Elise crossed her arms.

"How come Alexei gets to know your crush but I don't"

Trevor deadpans.

"If I tell you Avalon's gonna find out and meddle, which I don't want, but I don't think I'd be able to stop once started"

Elise makes a few false starts to retorts, before finally relenting with a long sight.

"Fair"


	33. Πέρασω

Make no mistakes, I am trying to tie all my loose ends so that I may finally be done with this story; it's probably one of my best works so far, but I am, exhausted.

Finally found something new to occupy my time, and my dudes, does it feel good to be back to normal! Keep your four senses alert, I might catch the attention of some of you once again in a different world ;)

After some computer issues, here it finally be.

* * *

33\. Πέρασω

Sometimes Avalon wondered if other people thought about things the way she did, if they strung farfetched comparisons together until they couldn't discern what was real anymore. Did others get lost in their attempts at relating to the experiences that transpired around them and to others?

Probably not; that sort of thing required for one to detach themselves beyond the point of recognition.

Sometimes, she wondered about different outcomes, and how people would've reacted to them; about what would change, what would stay the same. It had always been like this for her.

Back when she first met Elise and Trevor, she had figured people wouldn't like the honest version of herself, so she had investigated for hours on end, what she had to do in order to fool everyone.

Someone would probably consider it selfish, given she did it in order to be able to keep them in her life, in order to keep all the people around her as such. She did care for them, wanted them to be happy, or perhaps she had convinced herself of it; she didn't particularly care which one was right.

When she found Evan Hansen staring at a flier for the apple orchard thing their school had gotten into, she didn't stop to think about how her words could affect him.

"Your friend sure is working hard"

The omega whirls towards her, confusion clear in his features.

"What?"

Avalon supposes she was perhaps too vague and taps the poster with her finger.

"You know, with this little project of his"

Evan's breath hitches, but he seems to gather himself back up pretty quickly.

"Sorry Avalon, I need to go"

The beta doesn't stop him; she isn't surprised he knows her name; all of the yearbook committee members are easily recognizable. She watches him go and has the suspicion he didn't actually know Jared was behind the project, and that by revealing that information, Avalon has most likely set something in motion.

Avalon shrugs; she guesses she'll have to apologize to Alexei about it.

\- ... / ... . -.- / .. - .-. ... / .- .- .-. . -..

There had been a point, back when Jared first realized the depth of his feelings for Evan, where he wished he'd been born a beta. Everything would've been so much easier, there wouldn't be any expectations for him to have the perfect mate that would give him perfect pups; people would've raised eyebrows at him for chasing after an omega if he'd been born beta, but challenge him for Evan.

Well, Jared couldn't change his status as alpha, but Evan had been proven to be an actual choice, only Evan seemed to only have eyes for Murphy; the ash was to be blamed, sure, but boy did it hurt like a bitch. He had been glad when he noticed Evan's alluring scent disappearing, because it made Murphy jumping the omega less likely; but he was also concerned, because of what it meant.

It was no secret that the Murphy family was well off, but to buy something like that, even if Connor most certainly possessed the money to do so, implies a high level of intimacy. That, coupled with the fact that Connor seemed perfectly ok with being close to Evan while the scent was active; is pointing to the ash not affecting them hormonally as Jared had first thought, but rather emotionally, and that was fucked up.

It was a little consolation when the people working on the orchard started the slow process of cleaning the place up without hurting the trees; it's only a matter of time before this is all over. There's something bothering Jared though, enough so that the upcoming end to the ash isn't as exciting as it should be.

Why would Murphy want him to hide what Evan is? At first Jared had thought it was purely to avoid competition, but now… now that Jared knew it wasn't a physical thing, that reason doesn't hold much weight; because if Connor is comfortable with giving Evan heat blockers, then he probably wouldn't even blink at whatever alpha tried to make a move for the omega - secure in the notion that Evan only had eyes for him, because he did -; because Evan was more than capable to fight them off if need be.

Or maybe making Connor overprotective was also something the ash did, Jared didn't know anymore; and he was glad it was ending soon. Only there was a problem.

Jared worked under the assumption that once the ash was done away with, both Evan and Murphy would recede back to their former selves, losing any feelings they had built for the other; but did that mean they would also lose their memories of how the other acted with them? What they learned of each other? How far did the ash's influence go? How much did it ruin?

And, even if they did, wouldn't those around them bring it up? Wouldn't it be weird for them to distance themselves with no apparent reason?

Did it really matter? Jared couldn't stop the project now; all he could do is be ready to comfort Evan if it blew up on his face.

-... .- -.-. -.- / - - / -.- - ..- .-. / .-. . -. ..- .-.. .- .-. / ... -.-. ... . -.. ..- .-.. .

At times like these, Evan really wished he could actually talk about dragon issues with his therapist, and wasn't it fucked up to hide something like this from a therapist? Evan was pretty sure it was, at the very least, against the whole therapy process.

At least now he had something to distract Dr. Sherman with. Sure, he had to skirt around that too, because his whole involvement with Connor only happened due to both of them being dragons; but still.

Dr. Sherman was a patient man, Evan supposed, probably charming to his more outgoing patients, but Evan felt as though he didn't have a right to get comfortable with the beta solely because of the lie he lived. Sure, lying about something in order to not get hunted down and killed was just the right shade of grey to appear morally acceptable, but hell if Evan could ever let himself off for something so little.

He did tell the man about befriending an alpha, covering their meeting as Connor needing help finding his way out of the park, and them sort of clicking while they walked back to civilization; enough so that people started spreading rumors of them being together.

"And I guess I wanted to prove a point to Jared, that someone could actually like me, and Connor agreed to go along with it because they hate each other, you know, alphas"

"And that was the only reason he decided to help you with a fake relationship?"

It wasn't, but the real reason was not something he could talk about, so deeply tangled to the secret of his true animal, it was impossible to mention without spilling everything with it.

"Well I… I think so? I mean, what else could it have been?"

Because Tera had become attached to Evan and Connor would do anything to make her happy, because Connor was a dragon himself, not that he could say either of those things. Dr. Sherman doesn't give Evan any examples that he can use to bullshit a credible friendship with Connor; not that they aren't friends, or at least Evan hopes they are.

"And does anyone else know?"

"My mom does, she's mostly ok with it"

She was the one to suggest they pretend to be interested in each other on a much deeper level, he didn't add; it would only raise questions. It was worrying, how good he had gotten at picking his words, at misdirecting, at half-truths.

"And what about you, Evan? Are you ok with it?"

"I…"

Evan bit his lip, rubbed his hands together, then brushed his hair with his fingers, licked his lips, closed his eyes, breathed deeply; he couldn't tell how it had happened, nor could he tell why, but he needed to voice it, to have it out of his system. One single truth in the ocean of lies his life had become.

"I want it to be real"


	34. Το φιλί

I talk big game about it, but really the only reason I keep writing is because my biggest dream is to be able to inspire someone; and I think writing is how I'll get that.

There is such a thing as overcooked in slow burn, so you guys finally get to enjoy the meal. Aka the writer wants to stop, but I'm a man of my word, so I'm going to give this story an ending. I do have a thing I'm getting into, it actually is something I was into back in high school that's come back with a vengeance, but I don't want to give you any spoilers.

* * *

34\. Το φιλί

Connor is tired, tired of pretenses, tired of bottling things up, tired of not knowing where he stands with Evan. After the moment they shared in his room, after holding onto the other for longer than really necessary; he needs something solid to rely on, some way to put every emotion he feels for Evan into words.

A few things happen in the time it takes for Connor to finally do something about it, of which, the most notable is, somehow, the fact that Evan has been freed from his cast; and that's weird considering another thing that happens is that he finds out Kleinman is the one running the orchard project, but it is. Evan seemed a bit sheepish about the state of his arm, granted the difference in skin tones was pretty jarring to Connor too; but he seemed mostly relieved.

Perhaps his insistence on setting this particular happenstance aside was purely driven out of his more instinctual feelings towards the lack of his name on Evan's arm; like a non-permanent mark. As much as possessiveness was definitely part of his nature, it bothered Connor like nothing else, particularly considering how he felt about his feelings.

Still, Connor was done, Tera had an actual family - and working with Alexei Chilikov on how to tell Tera that was an entire experience -, so all Connor had to really risk was Evan. Well, actually, Connor wasn't all that ok with just handing Tera over, he was attached damn it! But, you know, details.

Connor's entire being is shaking with unbidden energy as he drives to the Hansen household in order to pick Evan up, he couldn't believe he was doing this; all it took was one moment, one single earth shattering moment, for him to decide on being selfish. He's not going to do it immediately, but he will do it, and that's kind of monumental.

-.- - ..- / -. ..- -.- ... / .- .-. . / -. - -. -. .- / .-.. - ...- . / - ... .. ...

The orchard had been quiet when Jared had stepped foot in it the first time, or rather, quiet in that not actually silent way nature tended to be when unbothered; it had also looked wild, and in that edge of powerful that came with the ability plants had to take over anything.

All that was gone now, taken out in order to restore something that had once been good, the sound of nature replaced by the humming of machinery, but the air would clear soon enough; this was going to be an orchard, after all. Jared and Alana had been allowed to go again, this time with the people who had joined the project; everyone seemed exited at the progress being made, Jared was exited for a whole different reason.

After all this time, after having to watch Evan be with someone else, it would finally be over. So he enjoyed the tour, but his smile wasn't there for the same reason as everyone else; his nose tingling as he kept picking on every scent, just in case.

Jared was happy when they left, but everyone thought it was pride at making it this far; he didn't let them think otherwise. It wasn't that hard, despite how it had started, Jared did care about the project; besides, Evan would probably like the place once it was done.

For the first time in a month and a half Jared Kleinman walks to school with his head held high, and the kind of spring to his step he's always masked as swagger, looking every bit like the person he was before everything got complicated; only he's looking for Evan, not building up excuses to hang out with the omega, but getting ready for what he'll most likely find, ready to comfort and help Evan through whatever the aftermath of the ash is. He's smiling as he turns the corner into the hall where Evan and him have their lockers, the smile doesn't last.

Jared turns the corner and freezes on his tracks as he sees them. They were standing a breath away from the other, foreheads connected and eyes closed; Evan was mouthing something to Murphy but Jared couldn't hear nor make the words, but Murphy's expression told him they were probably either reassurance or comfort.

It's wrong; Jared double checked and the orchard was clear. The ash was gone, Evan should've gone back to normal, this, whatever was between him and Murphy, was supposed to crash and burn; he was... he wasn't-

Murphy says something, matching level to Evan, in the sense that Jared can't hear it either, but Jared's seen apologies so many times that he catches the word sorry as it slips from the alpha's lips; Evan shakes his head, left hand all but flying into the alpha's cheek, caressing it tenderly and tucking a stray tuft of hair behind Murphy's ear. The worst happens after that, Evan arches himself into Murphy, hand sliding to the alpha's neck tentatively, mouth moving with words that Jared doesn't need to hear because what happens next tells him everything; Evan speaks, lips curling into a soft endeared smile, and Murphy closes the distance as if ordered, connecting their lips into a kiss.

They kiss like they have all the time of the world, tender with a trust improper of two people who've known each other for just two months; there's still no mark to be seen on Evan, but anyone with eyes would be hard pressed not to think them mated if faced with this sight. The way they hold each other tells an entirely different story; clinging together as if afraid the other will disappear in their arms, as if reassuring themselves the other is real.

Jared strides to them, anger and jealousy wrapped tightly together and around him, before his nose gets hit with the scent of ash, and his jealousy gives way to frustration.

"What the actual fuck?"

They stop kissing and turn to him without pulling completely apart.

.. / ... .- -.. / - ... .- - / .-. .- .-. .- -. .-. .- .-. ... / ..-. - .-. / ... - / .-.. - -. -.

Connor hadn't planned on doing it like this, it sort of… happened; someone said something to push him off the edge, but there was Evan, and Evan acting nearly expertly in order to contain Connor while also comforting him like nothing else, and Connor was weak. Too set alight by the decision to confess to stop himself from choosing actions over words.

He didn't mean to kiss Evan, but he couldn't bring himself to regret it, not really, even through the guilt that rose at taking advantage of the situation, the action had been beyond nice. Evan's lips were soft and his arms were still around Connor when they pulled apart.

Connor, too breathless to speak in anything other than a whisper, apologized frankly, trying to get away, because he screwed up. Only Evan kept him there, reassurance spilling from his lips at the same tone as he kept them closely together; and it was then that Connor realized he had voiced his doubts loudly.

He apologizes again, because what else is there to do? But Evan shakes his head, and lifts his newly free arm to place a hand on Connor's cheek, and his expression makes Connor's heart feel warm and fuzzy. He feels acutely how the hand brushes over his skin as if it were fragile, and then Evan pushes some hair behind his ear, and Connor trembles at the sensation, and then Evan's hand in on his neck, probably making the omega aware of his racing heartbeat, and Evan's lips are moving.

"Kiss me again?"  
And Connor would be an idiot not to comply with that, so he does, and it's different, it's tender, and sweet, and nowhere near long enough because the moment is broken by a simple phrase.

"What the actual fuck?"


	35. Συνέπεια

There are a few more things I have to get through, but I am almost done with this, and I am seriously looking forward to writing something new.

* * *

35\. Συνέπεια

It probably says something about him, that Evan is unsurprised at the fact that Jared interrupted what was truthfully the best thing to happen to him. Sure, his head is still whirling from the fact that not only did Connor kiss him, but Evan asked him to do it again, and the alpha did; and they have to talk about it, make sense of it, but Jared doesn't seem to be planning on letting them do that any time soon.

Evan kind of wants to punch him in the face? Like, he knows violence is bad, but he also, sort of feels justified? He doesn't though, because it would necessitate for him to let go of Connor, and he isn't sure he can bring himself to do that yet; not when it feels like he'll go back to how things were not two minutes ago if he does.

The thing is, Evan doesn't know how to respond, because, really, how to respond to that? He doesn't even know what Jared is so disturbed about, like, logistically, everyone thinks Connor and Evan have been basically dating the last month and a half; hell, he's pretty sure even the guys at the yearbook committee think that, and they know about Tera. It's probably not a good thing, the fact that so many people know about Tera, but it also gives them the luxury of having more than one option if worse came to worse.

In the end, it's Connor who breaks the silence, also refusing to move his hold on Evan.

"What do you want Kleinman?"

Jared's frankly perplexed expression shifts roughly as he bristles towards him.

"What I want to know is how the hell you still reek of ash! The orchard was taken care of, the source was dealt with, but you're still mind-fucked"

"Jesus, and I'm the drug addict"

Evan thinks Connor is talking to him, but he can't react right now because he's busy making sense of what Jared is implying.

"You think Connor was mind controlled into liking me?"

Both alphas pivot towards him, Connor with incredulity, which, same; and Jared with clear frustration.

"Not just Connor, both of you, why else would he be so interested in you all of the sudden?"

During the entirety of his life Evan was hyperaware of his anger, because if he got too angry, he'd give himself away; slit pupils weren't exactly foxlike after all, but now… now Jared's words ring in his ears, echoing through his entire being; he's hurt, and tired, and so very done with Jared Kleinman.

He knows he half shifted because Connor's hold in him tightens, and Jared flinches backwards.

"Oh, because it couldn't possibly be that he actually sees me or that he likes me for me, no! No one would actually care about Evan Hansen! There has to be a higher power involved!"

Somehow he detaches himself enough from Connor to corner Jared into the lockers, enough so that he doesn't feel the alpha right now, but that's ok.

"Well, guess what Kleinman, just because you think I'm some object whose value depends on whether or not I can give you pups doesn't mean other people do the same"

Jared finally collides against the wall, Evan hisses at him before turning around and grabbing hold of Connor in order to get out before Jared manages to recover; he's not letting him have the last word, not this time.

..-. ..- -.-. -.- .. -. -. / -... - - - / -... .. - -.-. ...

Connor is reeling, also kind of turned on but not enough for it to be noticeable, and he's ignoring it so it doesn't go there, but really, how is this his life?

He finds himself grinning once Evan stops to breathe, which causes the omega to direct his gaze at him, obviously just now processing what he just did; and Connor needs to stop him before he spirals.

"That was amazing Evan"

The omega smiles then, a small tentative quirk of the lips, but a smile nonetheless.

"I guess"

Connor moves closer to him, hand softly moving to make Evan look at him in the eyes.

"Hey"

His voice comes out softly, as he looks into Evan's lake green eyes; the omega sighs and places a hand on top of Connor's, eyes moving away.

"I'm trying to have a moral crisis; stop being distracting"

Connor felt himself smirking.

"And I'm distracting you how?"

Evan looks back to him, and Connor feels a hard to describe thing that's akin to dread but not quite.

"Is this ok?"

"Yes! Yeah, uh, is it? For you, I mean, are you ok with this?"

"I… oh god, we're doing this, I can't believe- I mean, yes, definitely, sorry, kind of reeling"

"Oh, thank god, I thought that was just me"

And Connor swears something gives at that because the next moment they're laughing, and honestly? He thought people were exaggerating when they said doing this sort of thing made you feel like flying, but as someone who has actually flown - perks of being a dragon - he can say it's very accurate. The don't let go of each other, just shift until they're forehead-to forehead, bodies curled together as their laughter dies out; and Connor never thought he'd like eye contact this much, but here he is.

"Can I kiss you?"

Connor feels his breath hitch at the look Evan gives him as he asks that, and it suddenly feels like they're too far; which is ridiculous when they're standing like this, really.

"Please"

And then Evan is getting rid of what little distance is between them, and Connor stops thinking for a few moments, as he willingly drowns in Evan.

.- . / - . . - / - .-. . ...- - .-. .-. ... / - -.- ... - . .-. -.- / - .- -.

Trevor should have known his fellow committee members would tail him now that they had clear confirmation of him harboring a crush on someone, so when Avalon followed him all the way into the practice room for the school's jazz band, he was unsurprised.

Trevor was there to take a few pictures of the practice, try to get good shots of the guys playing for the yearbook; this was a process that took very long, as Trevor preferred natural poses for his work, as well as personality. This meant that he'd probably be working with the jazz band for the next week or so, and then he'd move to the marching band, and then to the choir, and so on until all students had at least one picture of the activities they partook on; Trevor was a meticulous boy.

Ok, so he might have picked to do this first on purpose; usually he reserved the best for last, but applying that to this was a bad idea, considering how tired he'd be by then, and considering he didn't want to be caught staring. And maybe he had a crush on one of the alphas in the band, so staring was something that did happen, though Trevor liked to believe he was subtle about it when not exhausted.

Leith Ellis was the first sax, which had been what had first caught Trevor's attention, he had an affinity to artistically inclined boys, sue him; the fact that Leith was naturally big enough to crush Trevor only helped. Like, the soft looking reddish brown hair, soft features, and warm eyes were also pluses; as well as the kind of thigs to remind Trevor that yes, he was very gay, thank you.

It had started as a purely physical attraction, until Trevor finally found a good enough reason to strike conversation without looking weird; and Leith just had to be the full package, just to spite him. He was so gone; it wasn't even funny anymore.

Problem was: despite what people at school believed of him, Trevor was actually the biggest gay mess; seriously, how did one approach cute boys? And how did you keep your meddling friends from finding out you liked a cute boy?

Irene was, much to Trevor's charging, probably the more likely to notice his pinning; that was most likely why she had been the one sent to tail him, if Trevor was being honest.

"So… who are you zooning of to?"

Shit, caught red-handed; at least she didn't find immediately, as Trevor knows she wouldn't ask if she knew.

"Because if it's Zoe, let me tell you right now, you do not want to add that to the fuck-pile we have going currently"

Trevor frowns with his entire face, almost tempted to make a disgusted sound at the notion; nothing against Zoe personally, Trevor is just disgustingly homosexual.

"She's not exactly my cup of tea"

"Ok, so the guy with her then, good to know"

Trevor groans, because he's aware he's not good at lying, so denying the truth is a moot point; so he just resigns himself to the fact that she knows now.

"Look, I just… I want to approach him on my own terms? And that excludes you guys meddling, so if you could, not tell Ava, that's be a peach"

Irene gives him a look, before she lets out a long-winded sigh, and nods solemnly.

"Fair enough"


	36. Τζαρεδ συναντεί Τερα

I had fun picking what Tera knew and didn't know regarding words ;)

Tera curses because Connor is very bad at censoring himself, and because nothing amuses me more than thinking of a two year old saying fuck.

Guess who's been officially writing for ten years? This guy! Asters, I'm old.

* * *

36\. Τζαρεδ συναντεί Τερα

Tera thinks the world is a scary place outside of her first nest, there are a lot more loud noises here than back there, a lot more scents which indicated a lot more people; and though Tera missed hunting, she was glad not to have to go outside too often.

The world is also oddly pretty, there are colors here that she didn't have back there, also her sleeping pile's been replaced by the softest rectangle ever, with soft blankets and pillows! There's also the bright box that tells her stories with pictures.

This nest is smaller than her first one, and it doesn't smell as strongly of her dad; but her first nest had become a lot scarier than the world outside it.

Tera knows Vanhan is aware of her remembering the first time danger came to the place he called 'orchard', and she is very glad when he doesn't ask about it, because she does not like remembering. She's learned that the men that caused her mom to go away were something called 'betas', she's learned that not all 'betas' are bad, like Heidi, for example; she's learned that she's something called an 'alpha' like her dad, which makes her very happy, and that Vanhan is something called an 'omega'

Apparently, the 'omega' thing makes Vanhan smell so nice, and Heidi thinks that's why she liked him, which is not true, because Tera likes Vanhan because he feels safe, because he came to help her before they got to know each other, and because she could tell he was like her from that very moment. Tera is not stupid, she knows Heidi won't believe her if she tries to explain, so she doesn't; Vanhan knows the truth anyways, Tera can tell he does, and that's all that matters.

Tera has also learned that her dad likes Vanhan a lot, but in a different way from how Tera likes Vanhan, and Vanhan likes him back; Tera is really happy about it because now she can cuddle with both of them at the same time frequently. Also, also; her dad gets really red when she calls him 'dad', and Vanhan says he's 'embarrassed', she doesn't really get what that means, but she trusts Vanhan to be telling the truth.

The food is different here, kept cold by the magic humming box, but not to be eaten cold; her dad says it's so Tera learns to use her flames without burning things to crisp, Vanhan says she's getting real good at it, Tera thinks the food would taste the same cold, but she's also very proud. Sometimes she does go out, generally with her dad and Vanhan, but sometimes her dad can't come and it's just Vanhan; today is one of those days.

Tera misses the white thing that used to cover Vanhan's arm, she had wanted to draw on it but her dad had taken over the whole thing; apparently he had it because he felt of a tree, which is hard to believe because Tera has climbed trees with him lots of times! Maybe that particular tree was jealous because Vanhan was a prettier tree, Tera thinks he's the prettiest dragon tree and now her dad agrees so that has to be it!

Sometimes, when she's feeling particularly brave, she'll rush in front of him during these walks; this is why she's alone when it happens.

Tera collides into something soft and what feels like a hand stops her from falling, she notices the smell of soap and that itchy thing she's been told is called 'pepper' first thing, then she pries herself from the stranger to see a boy with thingies in his eyes; she also realizes that he's an alpha by his smell. The alpha boy frowns at her, and she takes another step backwards, before the air is tinted with Vanhan's familiar scent.

Vanhan reaches her faster than any other time, but doesn't immediately acknowledge her when she turns to him; eyes focused on the boy alpha. Tera tugs at him, wanting to be gone, there's lots she doesn't know, but she's sure this alpha boy means danger.

Vanhan finally turns to her, but it isn't to chase the fear she now feels away; instead she gives her the rectangle thingy she's seen her dad talking to, she knows it lets you talk to people who aren't there, and as he holds it out for her, she sees a bunch of numbers on the screen.

"Tera, I need you to press the green button in this screen and start walking home, hold the phone to your ear, ok?"

Tera nods quickly, taking the box thingy - a 'phone' apparently - from Vanhan and rushing back in the direction they came from, she presses the green button as soon as she's made enough distance not to understand what the two boys are saying, and puts the box close to her ear.

"Hello?"

Tera is so glad at the voice she feels tears falling through her cheeks.

"Dad!"

There's a beat and then her dad's voice comes back more worried.

"Tera? Did something happen?"

Tera sniffles and swallows, she needs him to come.

"Vanhan is- there was a boy and- he told me to go back home"

"OK, are you alone?"

Tera hums a yes, she can make the sound of keys and that almost-growl sound that her dad's car makes

"I'm on my way, do you know where to go?"

Tera always pays attention, because she likes knowing how close her new nest is, it makes her feel a little safer.

"Yes"

"That's my firefly, I'll be there in a minute, ok?"

Tera sniffles again, more tears running down her cheeks.

"Please hurry"

-.. . ..-. / -.. - .. -. -. / - ... .- - / .- -. .- .. -. / ... - - . - .. - . / ... - - -.

Evan feels his canines becoming sharper, and his eyesight follows along, pupils most likely slitting as his eyes take on their dragon form. As a forest drake he produces a much less deadly version of his acidic breath when angry, in the form of yellow-ish colored smoke-like mist; it leaves him a bitter taste in his mouth whenever he does, but oh well.

Evan likes to think he's perfectly justified in his anger, good old fight or flight reflexes picking fight and all that. Jared does take a step back, eying his mouth wearily, and Evan takes a deep breath, forcing himself to reel that in, because he's in the middle of the street, and he's done too much to be caught like this; particularly now.

Jared gets angry too, but the wolf features aren't going to get him killed, and Evan supposes he's a lot less threatening when not half-shifted.

"You had his fucking child?!"

Internally, Evan is the 'boy' meme, externally he just stays put, acting as a barrier between the maddened alpha and Tera.

"Is that why you're suddenly all over each other? Because you gave him a pup?"

On the one hand, Evan should probably correct Jared's misguided assumption of Tera being his; emotionally speaking Tera is very much so Connor's. On the other hand, he's getting really fucking tired of Jared Kleinman.

"What is wrong with you? Do you hate me so much that you can't stand someone liking me for me?"

Jared has the gall to act offended, like, confusion would've been more acceptable, since Evan is pretty sure Jared thought Connor and him were brain-washed a week ago.

"I like you for you!"

The amount of self-control that it takes Evan not to shift in order to rip him apart is unmeasurable; Evan is really good at this. He does allow himself to be bitter, because he thinks it's understandable.

"No, you don't, you like the fact that I'm bigger and can give you pups now"

"You think Murphy is different? He's probably only sticking around for the kid"

Evan hates that a part of him, piping up with a tone that sounds dangerously close to his own voice while also being distorted beyond recognition, reminds him that the last part of the sentence is absolutely feasible; so he snaps.

"Tera is my sister you impossible asshole, and even if she was mine, I don't owe you explanations"

Jared flinches, face paling, Evan decides to take that as his cue to leave; he's half expecting Jared to try and stop him, pulling another messed up reason why Connor is pretending to like Evan - which Evan already does himself, thank you very much -, and is extremely glad when it doesn't happen.

When he gets home he sees Connor's car parked by the sidewalk, and two familiar figures sitting on the porch. He finds himself smiling softly as he gets within their field of view.

Tera jumps up and runs to him, almost tackling Evan; Connor is slower, and when he gets close enough it's clear he's worried. Evan reaches out to him, inviting him to join the hug, the alpha smiles in relief as he does just that.

They stay like that for a good while, before Evan pries himself away, pecking Connor and kissing Tera on the forehead, before tugging them towards the house.

"Come on, let's get inside"


	37. Εκλογές

Short chapters as we slowly approach the end.

Quick thing: While I base all characters on what the fandom has told me, my opinion on Jared was built on what little I do know about the play. His approach to things and his reactions with Evan remind me of a toxic relationship I had a while ago, and I admit this causes most of my contempt towards him, but it's also because I heavily resent the fact that fics make it seem like Evan was the only one in the wrong and that Jared doesn't need to change anything.  
My portrayal of him here is a very exaggerated take on what he comes across like, combined with my best attempts at writing a believable version of him that fit what I needed for the story. Because while I hate the character, I would hate to make him just 'evil', because that's not how it works, there has to be substance, damn it!

Ok, rant over, back to your scheduled dragons.

* * *

37\. Εκλογές

Connor is… happy. Still worried that the wrong person will catch wind of Tera, or that Kleinman will spill about Evan, or that he'll lose either of them, or both; but, you know, happier.

Is it cheesy to say it's because of Evan? Does Connor care anymore? No, no he does not. Actually, he thinks he's allowed to be cheesy about his very first romantic relationship.

They've been together for a week now, a time spent mostly talking things through, and playing trial and error with their boundaries, because both of them are clueless to what they like and don't like in a relationship like this one; you know, on the count that neither has ever had one before. They are both contact starved, but sometimes contact is equally overwhelming for both; they are both terrible at receiving compliments, but can't seem to stop themselves from complimenting the other; they both need almost constant confirmation that the other likes them for real, but one is always too stuck in their head to be able to give it.

It's complicated, and kind of really hard, but they're working on it, and on being open with each other; they already trust each other more than anyone else, but it's still a process. That doesn't stop them from being affectionate now that they know the other likes them back.

And there's also Tera, Tera who doesn't quite understand the way they like each other yet, but seems happy about it regardless; Tera who they both adore way more than they probably should be considering they know about her family now. Well, they think they know; Connor wants to believe Alexei, he really does, but he doesn't know them that well.

Both Alexei and Trevor have started hanging out with them, it's kind of odd, and very awkward at first, but Evan seems to like Alexei, and Connor gets along surprisingly well with Trevor. It's confusing, but good, or at least Connor wants to believe it is; Connor wants to believe he'll get to stay happy.

When Tera calls him through Evan's phone and he has to console her terrified form, when Evan comes back smelling like anger both his own and Kleinman's; he fears that his hopes are too high, but Evan reassures him wordlessly, and Connor makes a silent promise to himself that he won't let Kleinman ruin this.

It's been a long time since Connor's had anything good in his life, he thinks he's allowed to be defensive of it. Particularly when the moment they are all inside the house, Evan pulls him to the couch, where he and Tera curl around Connor like he's their safety.

.- .- ... / - ... .- - / -. - - -.. ..-..

Jared was reeling a bit.

First there was the girl, the girl who carried that accursed scent of ash Jared had imprinted on his memory, but unlike with Connor and Evan, it did not wave around her as a strong aftertaste; no, it was dominant, clear, and tinged with the recognizable hint of alpha. The girl wasn't affected by the ash; she was the source.

And then there was Evan, Evan who irradiated concern like a fire around him; kneeling in front of her, talking softly, giving her his phone.

It was jarring how similar they were, despite the clear differences; but Jared knew those brown locks and sharp eyes as well, and he slowly made sense of the revelation they provided. But the girl was big, too old for the story Jared knew, but Jared figured lying to protect a pup wasn't beyond Evan.

Jared made sense of a few things: firstly, the girl was obviously a full dragon, the prominent scent was proof enough; secondly, the girl had an uncanny resemblance to both Evan and Connor; thirdly the girl was most likely about two years old; and finally, the orchard had been hiding a nest. So basically, Evan had lied about how Connor and him had first met, had hidden a child in an abandoned orchard for two years from the entire world, and by attitude alone, Jared guessed Connor had only known about her this year.

Now that Evan had gone away, after verbally slapping Jared for his angry outburst, and correcting Jared on what his relationship with the little girl was; Jared was reeling. Not because of the rollercoaster of emotions he just went through - though those didn't help matters any - but because none of it made sense.

If the dragon child was Evan's sister, why was Connor the one covered in ash the longest? Why was her nest in the orchard? None of it made sense. Jared was missing information, but for the first time in his life, he didn't know where to get it.

There was no asking Heidi about it, not after what he just did; he doubted Zoe would know anything, much less the two people who had started hanging out with Evan and Connor - and those two raised a pile of questions of their own -; Jared didn't know what to do.

He felt shaken to the core by the way Evan had looked angry, and then by his words. They were true, Jared had never made his feelings clear until after there was someone else after Evan, until Evan proved to be desirable to someone.

There was no outer force, no evil plot, just Connor Murphy making Evan Hansen feel the way Jared should've made him feel from the start, the way the omega deserved to feel. It was no wonder Evan liked the alpha, even if it hurt Jared.

He lost without even getting a chance to fight; and Evan had no intention of giving him one now. Not when Jared was a threat, not when he had ruined the one chance he did get. Back when they had presented, or maybe even further back; if Jared had been truthful about his interest from the start then maybe…

Maybe he would be the one that Evan actually wanted to show his real animal to, the one covered in the ash scent of a little sister surrounded by mystery, the one to know the name and story behind that sister; the one Evan clung to in the hallways, hidden smiles meant only for two, and looks that spoke volumes to the new nature of their relationship. Or maybe this would've still happened, only Jared would be a part of it, still having to watch Evan be heads over heels for someone else, but at least be someone to turn to for help.

But he had made his choice, had given up on his part of the narrative; and now, the story had no place for him. He could ask himself every an all the what ifs he wasted, it wouldn't change things.


	38. Φλερτάρετε

Sometimes, I'll run with an idea to surprising length while still remaining true to the original plot I planned for it. Other times, like with this story, something entirely new will be born out of the original idea, and somehow survive long enough for it to be properly finished.

Like, this story started as a weirdly long, very detailed dream I had, and now here we are.

Here we fucking are. (Two more, two more!)

* * *

38\. Φλερτάρετε

Connor had absolutely no idea how this had happened, when had his life gotten to the point where sitting on an empty classroom during break, watching Trevor Fletcher, the photographer for the fucking year book, pacing nervously on front of him became something normal?

Connor had no idea, but what he did know was that Trevor had asked for help, and well, they were kind of friends now; he was still not used to the idea, like, at all.

Trevor finally stops his pacing, letting out a long pained growl as he slumps into a nearby chair with a loud thud.

"This is ridiculous! I need help"

"Ok…"

Trevor lets out another equally pained growl as he turns to face Connor, a frustrated look in his eyes.

"How do you talk to cute boys?"

Connor took a deep breath, again, when had his life become this? When had things changed so much? Even things at home were more peaceful now that he was attending school regularly and had an 'acceptable' reason to arrive home late.

"And why did you think asking me this was a good idea?"

Trevor arched an eyebrow at him, a very well stylized eyebrow, it was kind of offsetting to be honest, Connor couldn't stop noticing them.

"You're dating a boy who, mind you, does fit the description of cute"

Connor half-wanted to tell Trevor to watch it, omega or not, but the better half of him felt a pleased trill at the idea of the whole dating thing being real now. God, he was dating Evan for real, and he was probably smiling like the love-sick fool he had turned out to be.

"I'm not too sure I'm not dreaming the whole thing up, to be honest"

Trevor makes a baffled expression for a moment before he pulls himself back together.

"That's actually very sweet, extremely unhelpful, but very sweet"

Connor shrugged, because fair enough, Trevor rolled his eyes at him.

"There has to be something though, like, you two didn't just decide to be together one day"

Connor frowns making sense of that.

"What you want the story behind that?"

"I mean yeah, that'd be cool, but you don't actually have to tell me, I'm not the prying type"

Connor considers the omega for a moment, figuring that he's going to have to take things out of the tale if he does share; because he's not putting Evan at risk, no matter what. It's not like their situation would help Trevor, but eh, Connor kind of wanted someone to know, even if it was the edited version.

"Want the short version or the long version?"

Trevor shifts in his seat, excitement evident for the reassuring calm he had portrayed not to seconds before; Connor is kind of scared at how good the omega is at masking his intentions, that is a terrifying power to have.

"I'm tempted to say short, but then I'm gonna want context, so let's save us the hassle and go for long version"

Connor manages to only call Trevor weird mentally, though he has the light suspicion the omega would take it as a compliment.

"We were thrown together into a complicated and very stressful situation, then had to fake a relationship when someone came too close to finding the truth, grew closer together as friends while dealing with both of those things; and well, here we are"

Trevor blinks at him.

"Oh"

Connor shrugs, kind of glad he got that out of his system; Trevor then gives him an inquisitive grin.

"Out of curiosity, what was the short version?"

Connor feels himself blushing but this he can respond honestly, and well, it's kind of ridiculous that this is how things work for him.

"I had a bad day, Evan was wonderful, and I just kind of, kissed him out of impulse"

Trevor opens and closes his mouth a few times before giving Connor a 'that's kind of fucked up dude' look.

"You are extremely lucky Evan likes you so much"

"I know"

Trevor shrugs, like, fair enough, as long as Connor was aware of how the situation hadn't been ideal; Connor makes no mention the undertones of his answer. He is truly beyond lucky that Evan likes him, but there's more to that than a single instance where Connor fucked up.

"That was also unhelpful, but very mood lifting"

Connor rolled his eyes at him.

"Has anyone ever told you you're ridiculous?"

Trevor grinned, throwing and overly exaggerated wink at him.

"Only all of the time"

Connor shook his head, again, how was this his life?

. ...- .- -. / .- -. -.. / .- .-.. . -..- . .. / .- - .. -. / - ... . / ..-. .-. .- -.—

Evan was low-key impressed he had never noticed Alexei shared history with him, particularly since the beta was a grade lower than him, and them being in the same class was a bit impressive.

Walking with the beta is still odd, but slowly becoming sort of a routine on days like these, where Evan lets Alexei direct him through the maze that is the halls of their school, knowing the beta is more likely to find whatever corner Trevor had convinced Connor to duck into with him.

Evan felt a little jealous of the growing closeness between them, but the last thing he wanted was to appear possessive, Connor and him had only been together for a week after all. But as they entered the almost empty classroom, and Connor turned to them only to smile at Evan; he figured he could dead with his jealousness, so long as he was the only one getting that look.

Trevor was also looking at Evan as he and Alexei entered the room, the camera Evan usually associated him with was resting innocently in the haphazardly pushed aside desk that the chair he was slumped into most likely belonged to. Evan decided looking at the piece of electronics put his eyes close enough to Trevor's general location for his fellow omega not to notice he was avoiding directly looking at him.

"Evan, your boyfriend is absolutely no help"

Evan felt pleasantly flustered at the word, and when he looked at Connor for an explanation, he found the alpha to have a bush that most likely matched his own. Connor shrugged and patted the chair next to him, Evan gave him a small smile as he went to sit there.

Trevor pulled up, twirling the chair around so that when he sat back down the back of the chair was pressed against his chest.

"When did you realize you wanted to be together?"

Evan blushes at the blunt tone of the question, Connor bristles in the next chair, a low warning growl echoing through the room. Trevor mocked the motions for a court swear, going as far as putting his left hand over his camera.

"As a professional, I promise that everything you say will be kept off the record"

Evan blinked at him, acutely aware of the tense alpha at his side.

"Uhm"

Alexei rolled their eyes and smiled gently at Evan.

"I'll make sure he keeps to his word"

Trevor let out an exaggerated gasp, his right hand flying to his chest as he turned to face Alexei.

"I take offence of that"

Alexei rolled their eyes once again, trying and failing not to smile at the omega's antics. Evan wondered what that was like, having that kind of friendship.

Evan run his fingers through his hair, and well, he guesses being half-honest wouldn't hurt.

"Well uhm… there wasn't- wasn't a single moment? More like va-various moments together that made me think about it?"

He feels a new set of eyes join the two pairs that had been on him so far, and he makes a conscious effort not to flinch under their weight.

"But uh, I didn't- didn't really think it was reci-recipro-reciprocated"

Trevor let out a loud frustrated groan as he leaned back enough that he could put his head on the back of the chair.

"How does one approach cute guys?"

"Wait, you want help flirting with a guy?"

Trevor sighed deeply, going back to a better sitting position as he nods his head.

"Is it an alpha?"

Trevor arched an eyebrow as if faced with something intriguing.

"Yes? I mean, he definitely is, but I've no idea what you're getting at"

Evan rubbed the back of his neck a bit flustered but well, if it helped…

"You don't flirt with alphas; you make them flirt with you"

He felt all three pairs of eyes turn to him in surprise.

"What?"

Trevor rested his chin on his own intertwined fingers, giving him an amused smile.

"I am extremely intrigued"

Evan bit his lip, he was unsure if it would work, considering Connor wasn't the average alpha. Connor had his full attention in him, looking as though he was surprised by the turn of events, and fuck if that didn't sparkle a bit of spite in Evan, so puts hands at work.

"Watch this"

The first thing is to face the alpha completely, moving his body softly and causing mismatched eyes to run over it as if hypnotized. Back straight and neck arched just slightly up, presenting himself cleanly to the very interested alpha.

Evan liked his lips slowly, having to bite back a smirk when Connor copied his movements, he their eyes meet, then dropped his gaze to Connor's lip, biting his own, before making his eyes jump back to Connor before finally moving to his hands; now to wait.

There was a loud shift besides him, and he could feel Connor get closer before the alpha makes a warning trill to verify his suspicions. Evan lifted only his eyes up, looking at Connor through his bangs, the alpha's eyes had darkened and his body circled Evan without actually getting close.

"Stop that"

Evan runs his teeth across his lower lip.

"Stop what?"

Connor let out a high-pitched whine.

"Evan"

The omega finally titled his head up, to face the alpha properly, only to shiver at the look he was given; Connor looked about ready to pounce him, and Evan would let him, oh god. Instead the alpha pressed their foreheads together, a low trill that caused Evan to shiver again.

"I really, really want to kiss you"

Evan felt his breath hitch.

"You- you can"

Connor made another sound in the back of his throat, this time echoed by a trill from the omega, before he crashed their lips together. It was different from their other kisses, this one was far more… possessive; not that Evan minded much, or at all.

It didn't last long, because Connor seemed to remember they had an audience, if the way he pulled away with his face red was anything to go by; Evan grabbed his hand and squeezed it, smiling when his shoulders un-tensed. Both Trevor and Alexei had reddened cheeks, but Trevor was absolutely beaming.

"You are unfairly good at that"

Evan blushed, coiling on himself, it was just something he learned from spending so much time with an alpha, and thinking about Jared was a bit messy these days. Connor, probably sensing his discomfort like Evan could with the alpha's, squeezed their joined hands again.

Trevor's smile softened, and his posture changed.

"I think that might work, thanks Evan"


	39. Παρελθόν

One last introduction, technically two… just, read the chapter?

Author made art (kinda): starysky205/art/Tera-766300413

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39\. Παρελθόν

Ivana Chilikov was barely starting in the professional world when she met the love of her life. As an alpha, she had never been the one at the receiving end of flirting; but societal norms didn't seem to matter to the other woman.

Her name was Scarlet, and she was anything but a normal omega; a fire in her veins that burned brightly as she effortlessly tore down every wall Ivana had ever built. Falling for her was the easiest thing in the world, courting her had felt like a privilege, being mated to her a blessing.

When Scarlet got pregnant of Alexei, Ivana thought it was the start of the rest of her life with the omega; and for a while, it seemed like it was. But then Scarlet started acting different, distant, lying about where she had been, and having a bitter undertone to her smoked meat scent.

Ivana worried, and wondered, and doubted; but Scarlet wouldn't let go, or let her in; and then she disappeared.

She had to raise Alexei by herself, and she would, even if her heart felt betrayed; she would not let her boy suffer, no, her child. Alexei had been so scared when they confessed that one to her, looking every bit like a kid as they hid behind the omega they had befriended; Ivana was silently glad her child had found such wonderful friends.

But before that, back when Alexei was about 4 years old, she had a re-encounter with a different woman, one that would grant her something she had wanted for years, answers. Heidi looked like a spooked animal as she explained the world her wife lived in, a world of fear, and distrust, and death; a world the beta's own mother had barely escaped, a world the beta's son was about to enter.

So she helped, she hid what the boy was, and then faked his animal when the time was right. She never told Alexei the truth, but now here they were.

The little alpha was called Tera, and unlike Alexei, she was a full dragon, a fire drake, because there was a difference. Her resemblance to Scarlet was uncanny, as was the similarity she held to the omega boy she was meeting for the very first time.

Ivana guessed most people likened Evan to Heidi, but Ivana could see Richard in him. She had met the alpha when they were young, they had been friends for a short while, and she had heard he had gotten married to a beta nurse; she knew he was living in Colorado now with a new family.

Seeing similarities between Tera and Evan was a little off-putting, but also reassuring due to the situation. Ivana felt a little helpless, to think Scarlet had to deal with hiding what she really was with no help, too afraid to trust anyone and have it blow up on her face; it hurt.

So she would do everything in her power to make sure Tera never went through that, and now that she had met them, that extended to the two dragons that were responsible for her still being alive.

.- .-.. - - ... - / -.. - -. . / .-. - ..- -. -.. .. -. -. / .-.. - - ... . / . -. -.. ...

Tera doesn't like remembering, but the tired looking woman that smells of alpha, and the odd beta besides her cause her to do just that. She's sure it isn't intentional, after all, Tera hasn't told anyone what happened.

She wants to, her dad, no, she had to call him Connor now, her real family lays with these two strangers; Connor had taken care of her, taught her what she needed to know, had never given up even when she had burned his arms, of course she wanted to tell him. But she's afraid of how he'll react, because she thinks that he'll go after the bad people if he learns about their existence, and she doesn't want him to be hurt.

She turns to Vanhan, because after the incident with the alpha boy, Kleinman apparently, he stopped Connor from getting into a fight, and because she can tell he suspects something about it, but he hasn't pried and he hasn't shown signs of wanting to go after the bad people; so she thinks he's safe to tell.

"You don't have to; I know remembering can suck"

There's also that, Tera knows there's something Vanhan himself wants to forget but can't, sometimes she can tell when he remembers it because his smile drops; but Tera has decided to tell him.

"I want to"

Vanhan smiles softly at her.

"Ok"

Tera looks at her hands, the nails have been painted pretty colors by Connor, so they wouldn't break so easily. She liked how smooth they felt to the touch.

"It was really scary"

….. - -/-… - -.-/.-/..-. .-.. .- … …../-… .- -.-. -.-

The memory is blurry, sharp with the sense of fear coiling around it and tinting the images just so, enough for the whole picture to be off-set. She remembers arms tightly around her, panting, and a beating heart.

She remembers leaves, a voice telling her to hide, a myriad of angry scents, including one she had felt safe with. She remembers running, grass, and rocks, and branches clawing at her uselessly as claws helped her not to stumble; to the nest, always to the nest, safer in the nest.

She remembers light, warm, and familiar, and terrible; and then silence. Silence for what felt like ages, a silence she dared not break, because it would bring the bad people to her.

She remembers feeling the days pass, seeing sunlight and moonlight fall alike on the uncovered part of her nest, one after the other with no end. And she remembers him, remembers the things she later learned to be 'coffee' and 'chocolate'.

It takes a bit for her to trust him, to realize he's not going to hurt her; it takes her longer to care for him, to take him as her family.

Vanhan doesn't speak as she talks her way through it, just offers his presence as a reminder that she isn't there, and she likes him all the more for it. When she's done he brushes her hair behind her ears, and smiles softly.

"I'm so glad I got to meet you"

Tera knows she's crying as she throws herself at his arms, but Vanhan holds her close and rubs circles in her back; she's glad too, so glad that Connor found her, that she met Vanhan, even if it feels like she's losing them both.

"Don't tell dad"

She knows she's supposed to use his name, but Vanhan doesn't correct her; and though she thinks he wants to, he doesn't ask questions either.

"Ok"


	40. Το τέλος

Me: *pretends you don't know exactly who I'm talking about through the first half of the chapter*

Gods, last DEH fic, I'm gonna miss you guys.

Generally, I make long, very feels-y goodbyes… not this time.

Time to finish this my dudes. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

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40\. Το τέλος

There are certain things that never really get solved.

Disappearances are complicated, because they leave room for too many what ifs; perhaps to someone else it would sound awful, but I would much rather take the certainty of death over the mystery of disappearance. My standing on the matter is, of course, entirely biased due to my personal experiences regarding missing people; though I believe the situation would've been less stressful had I known what would come after.

Moving on, letting go, accepting grief; these are things you never really stop doing, even if you, like me, have been on it from a very young age. In times like these, where the memory is too heavy, I rely of the two people who I care most about.

The boy who saved my life, and the boy who, without knowing it, made it so I would get it back. I am beyond thankful to both of them, and I am so, so very glad to have them in my life.

But there's more to life than that which can't be solved. There's also, and above all else, beauty.

Beauty in learning to love someone brought to you in possibly, the worst way, as if shoved into your path; but a someone who sees you for you, and learns to love you despite and because of everything that such a discovery means. Beauty in learning to love someone again, someone who lost their way, someone who forgot how to love themselves.

There's also beauty in forgiving, even if it is slow and wary, even if it's tentative due to too much damage; forgiving a brother and son, forgiving a friend, both guilty of falling to anger, both trying to saw what they ripped.

This is a story about |

-.. .. -.. / -.- - ..- / .-.. .. -.- . / - ... .- - ..-..

Her fingers stop as a soft knock brings her out of her concentration, she lifts her head to find a young boy with short light-brown hair and the brightest blue eyes; to the untrained eye the two look to be siblings, and a part of her relishes in the thought that, technically, they are now.

"What is it Oren?"

The boy takes a step into the room, despite the obvious similarity to his dad, it is clear he's more like his papa when it comes to attitude; that's ok, she's more like his dad, if the comments made by Oren's omega parent are anything to go by. Secretly she's proud of the comparison, though she won't admit it.

"Papa said everyone's almost here!"

She smiles softly at him.

"Ok, let me save this and I'll be right with you"

Oren gave her a wide grin, showing of his missing teeth, she turned back to the computer to do as she had said before closing everything and standing up, as she did she felt the sweet tone of Oren's scent when happy.

The world had been slowly changing since she was her age, to the point where people who had been hiding, people like them, finally felt safe enough to show their true selves; she was beyond glad Oren had grown up in a world where being a drake was something cool.

Downstairs the kitchen is alive with the sounds of cooking utensils, music, and colorful language, she shook her head in amusement, the older alpha had never learned to censor himself, and she didn't see him learning any time soon. Walking into the room reveals a man with soft dark brown hair tied into a messy bun, an apron claiming 'world's okayest cook', and a spark of brown in otherwise blue eyes.

"Need a hand there?"

The man chuckles lowly, turning to her with an amused look.

"No chance firefly, you inherited your papa's horrible cooking skills"

She lets out an exaggerated gasp.

"I did no such thing"

The man crosses his arms.

"Your fire breath is not a shortcut for 'faster cookies'"

She feels heat climbing up her cheeks.

"I was 12!"

Before the man can make a retort the front door opens and the fresh scent of forest joins the fray, putting a balance to the alpha-to-omega ration in the building.

"I'm gonna go see he doesn't try to do everything himself again"

The man smiles softly at her.

"Thanks firefly"

She grins and runs to the last member of this newly forming family of hers, short blonde hair and lake blue eyes that had once, a long time ago, been unfamiliar and safe in tandem; now they're just tired and safe, always safe. The male omega smiles knowingly at her as she helps him with the last touches before the others arrive.

\- -.- / .. .-. .-.. .-.. / ... - - .-. / -. - .-

It is not the first time the Murphy-Hansen household has had this many people present, or well, rather they are used to having this many people over, the house is new to it. They had moves there a week before the final arrangements for Tera to be a permanent member of their family.

It was a long affair, mainly because they had to register Tera as existing in the first place, as well as find out who her other parent was; since neither parent appeared in the system, Tera was given to the Chilikov family for the time being. However, once Connor and Evan had managed to settle down, the first thing they did was try for custody.

They had kept constant contact with Tera, and explained everything to both Ivana and Alexei, eventually, the process started.

They hadn't really planned for Oren, but they had managed to fit him in their lives regardless; they both loved the boy greatly, and were really glad when the boy took to Tera so quickly. Now here they were.

Ivana and Alexei were the first to arrive, Alexei with Zoe at their side, that had been kind of a fun surprise, in the sense that it took Connor a long bit before he got over the weirdness of the situation; apparently they met because Trevor's alpha was in the jazz band with Zoe. Alexei was one of the main reasons why Zoe and him had managed to start the slow trail to fixing their strained relationship; so Connor %100 here for them.

Heidi arrived next, together with Jared and Alana; and there was another story of a beta playing mediator in order to fix strained relationships. If Kleinman ever hurt Alana, Evan would kick his fucking ass, Connor was sure; the alpha also knew he would help his mate without hesitation, because Alana was great.

Connor's parents arrived with Trevor and Leith, Cynthia was fussing over Trevor who was a lot bigger than when Connor last saw him. Was it weird to see his mom fusing over his best friend? Yes, yes it was; but he supposed she was allowed to since Trevor actually let her do it, unlike Connor.

"Are you stealing my mother?"

Trevor smirks at him.

"Maybe"

Connor snorts.

"Keep her"

Cynthia looks absolutely aghast.

"Connor!"

Connor rolls his eyes, he steps aside as he notices Tera approaching with an exited Oren in her arms; she gets the sportiveness from her fire drake blood, he's pretty sure. He moves to talk with his favorite mom, the one that the dragon gene but didn't shift into one.  
Heidi has Evan in her hold, which only makes Connor want to be there even more, because there's his favorite boy. He makes sure they aren't talking about anything too serious before he slips behind Evan, pulling him into his arms with a soft kiss to the omega's cheek before looking at the beta.

"Hi Heidi"

She smiles in amusement, most likely due to whatever expression Evan has right now.

"Hello Connor"

Connor smiles back at her as he makes himself comfortable around his mate.

"Trip ok?"

Heidi huffs.

"Alana and I have agreed to not let Jared drive until he learns to be an adult"

He feels as Evan snorts at that.

"I tried to warn you, but Alana keeps giving him too much benefit"

Heidi puts a hand on her chest.

"Honey I am so sorry you had to experience that all of high school"

"Well, I found myself a much better driver by senior year"

Connor doesn't need to see him to know he's smiling; he can hear it in his voice, so he turns his head to look at him, and finds lake blue eyes waiting.

"Hey"

His voice come out soft, and beyond fond; not that he minds, Connor is a love-sick fool for his mate. Evan makes a sweep to his lips then looks back to Connor's eyes with half-lid eyes.

"Hi"

So Connor closes the distance and kisses him, and it still makes him feel like flying just like the first time they did this, and it still makes him feel like the world had stopped for a moment. There's another reason why he invited everyone other than house-warming; but that's for later in the evening.

\- -.- -..- / - ... .. ... / .. ... / - ... . / .-.. .- ... - / - -. .

This is a story about a family, and the secret that pushed them all together; a secret only made so by fear, a fear that should've never been. It is perhaps a bit distasteful to be grateful for hatred, but this is a very particular case, a one in a million story.

There are indeed things that never get solved, mysteries too big to uncover; things, that are simply, not meant to have answers. But I don't need that, I don't need to know everything, just me and what I want my life to be.

This, is the story, of Tera.

\- ... . / . -. -..

The End.


End file.
